


The Castle of Elsewhere

by orphan_account



Series: A World Beyond [1]
Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, F/M, I'm Sorry, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:06:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22342279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Recently, there has been a rumor that was becoming popular with the students of UA, a strange one at that.It spoke of a European-style caste that was supposedly in the middle of nowhere. It is claimed that it is haunted by a grief-stricken student who was murdered within its walls with no one to mourn for her. There was no way to get to the castle as it was impossible to pinpoint the castle’s location unless one is lucky to meet The Gondolier, and even then, he was hard to find. If one was lucky to meet him, he would ask you a riddle. If answered correctly, he would allow the person on his gondola and bring them to the castle. However, the ride was dangerous. During the ride, the passenger would hallucinate and see their greatest fears. If they were to fall, they would wake up in their bed, but, if they were to stay in the gondola, they would arrive at the castle.The rumor was so bizarre that many of the students brushed it off as someone’s imagination going wild.Though, when the students of Class 1-A and 1-B find The Gondolier in the flesh, they begin to believe that the rumor was more than just a story.
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki & Kaminari Denki & Kirishima Eijirou & Sero Hanta, Asui Tsuyu & Iida Tenya & Todoroki Shouto & Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Endgame Midoriya Izumi/???, Jirou Kyouka & Midoriya Izuku & Yaoyorozu Momo, Midoriya Inko/Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Midoriya Izuku & Pro Heroes, Midoriya Izuku & U.A. Faculty, Midoriya Izuku/Everyone
Series: A World Beyond [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776355
Comments: 40
Kudos: 136





	1. The Citizens of Elsewhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And once again, my ideas get the best of me and I create another story. Sorry!
> 
> Also, on a bit more serious note, whenever you see ‘𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮’, keep in mind that it’s only a transition to another person’s point of view or a time skip. So, it has nothing to do with location. Got it? Great! Enjoy the story!

It was 3:33 in Japan, and the moon and stars shone like dim, white lamps in the darkness. Most people were still dreaming about various thing and, due to that, not many had been awake to see a gondola float in the air, dropping plushies in specific areas. 

He went by The Gondolier, the ambassador of the Overworld to the Castle of Elsewhere, and his duty was to introduce his world to the citizens of Elsewhere by dropping them off in areas they wanted to see. Although, his job wouldn’t have been easy without the Queen of Elsewhere as she once lived in the Overworld as well. If not for her, he would’ve already been tossed into the Tragedy Tower. 

“I want to be dropped off here, Chizome!” However, there were still some citizens that annoyed him to no end. 

“Shut it, Cheshire. You said you wanted to be dropped off at that hero school, so I’m going to drop you off at your destination. Also, get back into your plush form. My gondola is slower if there’s another person on board.” 

The hybrid pouted at The Gondolier’s choice of names. “Why are you calling me by my Elsewhere name? We’re in the Overworld! Call me Nico!”

“No. Until you get off this gondola, you will still be referred to by your Elsewhere name, and I’m not going to drop you off anywhere else but your destination.”

Said passenger was one of those citizens that annoyed The Gondolier. Apart from his lack of manners, Cheshire was a mischievous rule breaker who has jeopardized Elsewhere’s location thousands, if not millions, of times. What made the cat-human hybrid more insufferable was his unnatural amount of luck. Actually, the hybrid was close to being imprisoned in the dungeon until the Queen appeared and pitied him. Although, once she found out about his impish personality, she placed specific laws that only applied to him. If he dared disobeyed, he would be sent to the dungeons and forced to shower twice a day, a necessity Cheshire had dreaded his entire life. 

Needless to say, Cheshire obeyed the Queen and was even an avid supporter of her. And, after he had undergone an examination, he was regained his rights as an Elsewhere citizen which allowed him to travel to the Overworld. But that didn’t snuff out his wicked disposition. As a citizen, he abided by the laws, but he would still play pranks, although harmless this time, on people he deemed as ‘grumpy pants’. It was just The Gondolier’s luck that the hybrid deemed him as one of those kinds of people. 

“But I want to be dropped off here too!” The cat hybrid whined, Prussian blue hair, ears, and tail attempting to look as small as possible to win The Gondolier’s sympathy. However, The Gondolier wasn’t buying it. “No, each citizen gets one area they want to visit each month as per the Queen’s order.” 

Bright amber eyes began to get wet with faux tears. “But you can make an exception for me, right?”

“No, and don’t try to fool me by pretending to cry. It won’t work.”

Suddenly, Cheshire’s hair and tail began to relax and his eyes blinked away the tears. “Aw, you got me! You really are smart, Chizome!” Although The Gondolier only responded with a grunt, the Elesewhere citizen was already used to his personality and smiled to himself when he saw his destination from the gondola. “Well, I guess I’ll see you next month,” the hybrid said as a sendoff before jumping out of the boat and turning into a cat plush. 

“See you, next month,” The Gondolier muttered to the wind, slightly missing the hybrid’s presence.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The Queen looked at the vast emptiness around her. The only things that occupied her room were two cherry blossom trees that had a silk hammock tied between them and a book that documented the lives of each and every citizen of Elsewhere. All of these things laid upon a body of still water that acted like the ground, so none of them sank to the abyss. Everything was else was empty, allowing the eternally pink and orange sunset to completely boast its beauty. 

The Queen admired the sunset while she lazed in her hammock. The ‘sky’ reminded her of a beach back in her hometown. It was a beautiful beach and she wished to see it again, but she was aware that the Council would refuse to let her go back. At the thought of the beach, she could smell the phantom aroma of chai, cinnamon, and salted caramel that belonged to one of her old friends. A smile grew on her face.

_The sun was setting and two children stared at it in awe from the sturdy tree branch they were sitting on._

_“Hey Kacchan,” the girl asked, her emerald eyes not looking away from the scenery, “what would you like to be when you grow up?”_

_The ash blonde boy took his eyes off of the sunset and gazed at the forest green-haired girl with confusion. “Why’re you asking me that all of a sudden?”_

_The girl flushed in embarrassment and began to stare at the ground. She mumbled out, “It’s ‘cause White Rabbit visited me again last night. He told me that I’m going to have to rule a kingdom when I grow up.”_

_At the mention of the person, the boy rolled his scarlet red eyes. “‘Zumi, White Rabbit isn’t real. Rabbits can’t just appear out of nowhere. It was probably just a dream.”_

_“But, if he was real, that means I am going to become a queen, right? And Mama said that all queens need their white knight! So if I’m a queen, then that means you’re a white knight!”_

_‘Kacchan’ turned bright red and looked away from ‘Zumi’. “You idiot,” he shouted, “don’t say things like that!”_

_There was an awkward silence between the two until he muttered, “But, yeah. I’m your white knight.”_

The smile on the Queen’s face slightly fell at the memory. “Oh Kacchan,” she sighed, “we were both so naïve back then, thinking that the only thing that mattered was our small bubble.” She stared at the book that hovered off of the ground. “It’s been so long since we last talked, and I wonder how much you’ve changed. After all, time in Elsewhere is faster than the time in the Overworld.” The Queen got off of her hammock and walked aimlessly in the abyss that was her room. “But, as much as it hurts me to say this, I have to move on from such selfish desires.” Immediately, thousands of bolts of polyester fabric, along with a sewing machine and multiple spools of thread, appeared out of thin air and slowly fell onto the water floor. 

She examined the bolts, thinking about the type of citizens she was going to make. “Hatter said there’s not enough citizens for tea time, so I’ll start there.” Shortly after, she started working on creating the new citizens of Elsewhere.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

White Rabbit nervously stood in front of the Queen’s door. _‘You idiot,’_ he thought to himself, _‘what makes you think that the Queen would leave her chamber anytime soon? She the Queen of Life for tea’s sake! She must be busy right now! Come back later and you’ll have a chance!’_ Upset at the thought, he clutched a pink envelope and turned around before walking away, accidentally dropping plush stuffing while doing so. 

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The White Queen observed her garden of white roses from her marble gazebo while sipping her white tea. The gentle wind combing through the white roses, the faint sweetness of the white tea, and the smooth texture of the white gazebo made everything perfect, as it should be. The White Queen’s garden was flawless until she heard rustling, a noise she despised in her garden. 

As much as the woman wanted to slam her teacup onto the glass table, she restrained herself and instead gently placed it on its saucer. “Who dares disrupt the White Queen during her teatime,” she questioned with controlled rage, “show yourself now and you’ll receive a lighter punishment, but if you remain hidden then off with your head.”

At the threat, a small girl with a horn came out of the rose bushes. The White Queen was pleased with her compliance. “Come here,” she ordered. The child wobbled towards the monarch and, when she was in front of the woman, she stood still in fear and looked at the ground. 

The monarch’s eyes examined the girl. “Your horn is absolutely hideous,” she criticized, “but your off-white hair is magnificent. Is it natural or did you dye it in order to match me? If that is the case then I am flattered. However, you could never match my beauty, so drop such mindless goals.” The child didn’t answer back and continued to stare at the ground. “Now, what do your eyes look like? I’m curious. Child, look at me.” 

Said girl complied with the White Queen and looked up at her, causing the woman to stare back with disgust. “Red,” the woman hissed, “you have red eyes! Are you trying to insult me by pairing your dirty red eyes with pure white hair? That impure color that belongs to that man is not allowed in my garden!” The monarch struck the child on the cheek as hard as she could without dishevling her own appearance. The girl fell onto the gazebo’s floor and the White Queen yanked her hair. “What is your name, you insolent brat?” 

“Eri,” she yelped, “my name is Eri!” 

“Eri, you say? Well tell me, Eri, why did you enter my garden with those disgusting red eyes of yours?” 

Eri whimpered as tears formed in her eyes. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know that this was your garden!”

Both confusion and anger formed in the White Queen’s mind. “That’s impossible,” she spat. “Every citizen in Elsewhere knows what my garden looks like and knows not to enter it, so why do you not know that rule?” 

Teary red eyes looked at pearl white ones. “Elsewhere? I’m from Japan!”

The monarch dropped the child onto the marble floor in shock. “Japan? Wait, you’re from the Overworld aren’t you? Just like the Queen of Life?” Soon after, wrath appeared on her face. “You’re challenging the Queen of Life, aren’t you? You disgraceful swine! You are not worthy of even _breathing_ the same air she does! The worst part about all of this is that she won’t punish you! Knowing her, she’ll probably spare you! She’s too kind for her own good!” 

The White Queen stomped out of her gazebo, dragging Eri by the hair. “I’m not trying to challenge anyone,” Eri shouted desperately, “Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything!” Suddenly, the queen stopped. “You’ll do anything?”

“Yes! I swear!”

Then, Eri was dropped onto the dirt and stared at the sadistic look on the monarch’s face. “If you’ll do anything,” she said, “then, from now on, you’ll be my slave.”


	2. Citizens of the Overworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see the effects of Izumi’s death on the citizens of the Overworld.

A romantic tune danced in the living room as a green-haired woman tidied up the room. The gentle sounds of rain from the music paired well with the song. The soft and warm colors of the living room relinquished all of the grief and sorrow that weighed the woman’s heart. All in all, the atmosphere made the woman calm and helped her forget the incident. 

A somewhat weak masculine voice came from the kitchen, “Inko, you are listening to that song again. Do you like it?” Out from the kitchen came a golden blonde-haired man with Egyptian blue eyes who was sickly scraggly. The woman, Inko, smiled back at the skeleton-looking man. “Ah, yes. This song is lovely, Toshinori. It does wonders for me. I wonder if my little princess would’ve liked it.” The remembrance of Inko’s daughter dampened her mood, and Toshinori smiled sadly. “Of course she would,” he said, trying to console the woman, “from what you told me, I can tell that your daughter would’ve loved this song very much. But there’s no use in remaining in the past, Inko. You must move on.” 

Inko burst into tears. “She was killed, Toshinori! My baby girl was killed! If only I hadn’t sent her on that field trip then maybe she’d be here with me today!” Toshinori brought Inko close to his chest in an effort to calm her down. “I understand what you’re going through. I was the same like you once,” he disclosed. “Someone who I treated like a mother was killed by a villain and I was powerless to stop them, but I realized that she wouldn’t want me to grieve over her my entire life. Just like my mentor, your daughter would probably want you to live your life to its fullest before you join her. Of course we still carry the heartache at losing a loved one, but we must keep on going while treasuring their memories.” 

Sobs turned into sniffling as Inko tried to calm herself down. “You’re right, Toshinori,” the woman began, “my little princess wouldn’t want to me waste away my life like this.” She left Toshinori’s arms and went to pause the song. “Thank you so much, Toshinori. I feel so much better now.” He grinned at his crush’s relief. “Anything I could do to help.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“Yo, Bakubro, why is your hero name ‘The White Knight’? I didn’t take you for the chivalrous type.” 

Katsuki glared at Eijirou and shouted, “That’s none of your business, Shitty Hair! I can name myself whatever I want!” Denki smirked at Katsuki’s reaction. “Maybe he’s trying to impress a girl! That’s why he brought that bouquet of flowers!” 

“Shut the fuck up, Pikachu!”

“Come on Katsuki,” Mina giggled, “tell us who the lucky girl is!” 

Annoyed with his friends’ antics, Katsuki created a few small explosions in his hands as a warning. “I swear to fuck, if you all don’t shut the hell up then I’m ditching you all here!”

Hanta looked around at their surroundings. “Speaking of which,” he questioned, “where are you going, Katsuki? This isn’t the direction of your house.” Denki stared at him as if he was stupid. “Isn’t it obvious? He’s going to see his crush! Right, Suki-Suki?”

“I’m not telling you jack shit! And don’t call me that, you Pikachu wannabe!” 

However, Katsuki’s friends didn’t let up and kept questioning him throughout the entire walk. It wasn’t until he was at his destination, a normal house in a normal neighborhood, that they quieted and sent him looks of encouragement. Katsuki walked up to the front door and knocked while the others stared at the scene, ready to see the girl who captured the angry Pomeranian’s heart. Yet, much to their surprise, a green-haired woman opened the door. 

“Oh, hello Katsuki,” she greeted, “what brings you here today?” 

The blonde lifted the bouquet of pink carnations to the woman’s eye level. “Hi Auntie Inko, I’m here give a gift to Zumi.” He noticed that a song was playing in the background, a sign that Inko had been grieving earlier. As much as he wanted to help his aunt with her anguish, his existence reminded her of her daughter, but there was one person who could lift Inko’s mood. 

“Is Mr. Yagi here?” Although it was a simple question, it was Katsuki’s way of judging the man. He had noticed his feelings towards his aunt and he felt like it was his duty to determine if he was right for Inko. The blonde could never forget the day his former uncle, Hisashi, left Inko in favor for another younger woman. After that day, Inko’s daughter herself vowed to judge any future suitors, but, now that she was dead, Katsuki took it upon himself to uphold her vow. If Toshinori wasn’t there for his aunt in her darkest of times, he didn’t deserve her. 

At the question, a skeletal man appeared at the door. “Hello, my boy, I heard you are here to leave Izumi a gift, yes?” The teen only nodded and entered the house along with his friends, causing Toshinori to look a bit discouraged. 

Katsuki walked towards Izumi’s room while his friends followed closely behind, some of them still confused as to what his reason for visiting this house was. When he approached a door that had an All Might themed door sign with the word ‘Izumi’ engraved on it, he took a deep breath and opened the door. 

The door revealed the room that was covered top to bottom with hero merchandise and animal plush toys. However, the strangest thing about the room was that there were large rabbit paw prints everywhere as well as a silver pocket watch hanging from the ceiling. The sight of the rabbit prints and pocket watch made Katsuki hiss in agitation. “That damn rabbit came in here again.” 

“‘Damn rabbit’? What are you talking about,” Hanta asked, “is it an animal with a quirk?”

Ignoring Hanta’s question, Katsuki tore the pocket watch down and shoved it in his pocket before laying the bouquet of flowers on a desk and leaving the room, closing the door behind him shortly after. He walked back to the living room and said, “Auntie, that damn rabbit invaded Zumi’s room again.” 

Inko paled at the mention of the rabbit. “I thought that demon would be satisfied after taking my daughter away from me,” she stammered. Soon, her stammering turned into sorrowful sobs. “Why does that _thing_ keep taunting me? I knew I should’ve kept Izumi away from him when she first showed it to us! What more does it want?” The woman’s sudden descent to tears caused Toshinori to run to her side and try to console her. 

The man, not understanding the full situation, gave Katsuki a warning stare. “My boy, I suggest you leave now.” 

Knowing that the man wouldn’t understand what was going on even if he told him, Katsuki complied and left the house, his friends following closely behind him. 

The group of students kept walking away from the house until their leader took a stray turn into a park. Sighing, the blonde sat on a swing and kicked a pile of dirt while shouting, “Damn it!”

Eijirou, perplexed by seeing Katsuki’s reaction, asked, “Bakubro, what’s going on? Why did that lady cry when you mentioned a rabbit? Did a bunny villain kill her daughter?” Meanwhile, Hanta, Mina, and Denki watched in silence as they didn’t know how to react to the situation. 

“That’s not it, Shitty Hair,” Bakugou replied. “It’s a long story, and I’m pretty sure you guys don’t want to hear it anyway.” Suddenly, Mina spoke up. “No, we want to listen. We want to help you, but we need to know what’s going on first.” Uncharacteristically, Denki joined in but with a serious tone. “Mina’s right. We want to help you, Katsuki.” 

Bakugou was silent for a while until he let out a sigh of surrender. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you guys better get comfortable ‘cause it’s a going to take a long time to explain.” After the others situated themselves, Katsuki cleared his throat and began.

“When I was a brat, I had a friend named Midoriya Izumi, the daughter of that woman you saw earlier. Often times, she’d tell me about an ‘imaginary’ friend named White Rabbit. According to her, he was, well, a white rabbit that wore a blue waistcoat, dress shirt, and suit. At first, Auntie Inko—the woman in the house—and I thought he was a figment of her imagination, but soon we were proven wrong. You see, one day, I insulted White Rabbit saying that if he was real he should show a sign that he existed. Of course, the fucking asshole broke into my goddamn room and left a silver pocket watch with a message saying, ‘You should watch your language, young man. Your attitude is unbecoming of a boy like you.’ Then, when Auntie Inko didn’t believe in his existence, he kidnapped Izumi for a while and dragged Auntie through hell to get her back.” 

Sero stared at Katsuki incredulously before commenting and asking, “He sounds like a villain! Did Izumi remain friends with White Rabbit after that?”

Katsuki nodded in response to Sero’s question and continued with his explanation. “The next day, Auntie and I tried to tell Izumi how dangerous White Rabbit was, but she wouldn’t listen. That rabbit had gotten to her before us and told her that we were trying to split them apart because we didn’t like him. Izumi, being the trusting person she was, had believed what he said. It wasn’t until we apologized did she forgive us. Auntie and I would worry for Izumi and would keep a close eye on her, but he wouldn’t do anything bad to her. After a few days, we deemed him as a harmless rabbit that only wanted Izumi to be friends with him and allowed her to remain in contact with the animal.”

“White Rabbit doesn’t sound bad so far,” Ashido stated, “but I know that isn’t the whole story. You wouldn’t hate anyone without a reason.”

Bakugou nodded, like he did with Sero, and kept explaining. “As we grew older, we eventually grew out of playing children’s games. However, White Rabbit was not pleased with this result. He began to take advantage of Izumi’s kindness and claimed that if she didn’t play with him then he’d die. She, not wanting to a friend of hers to pass away, did as he said and would play with him. In the beginning, the two would play the same games that we played as kids, but, as time went on, White Rabbit would bring Izumi to a place called ‘Elsewhere’ to play for long periods of time. Anytime Auntie or I complained, White Rabbit would say that the time in Elsewhere was slower than the time here, so it was harder for him to determine whether or not it was the right time to return Izumi. We both knew that was utter bullshit, but what could we do? White Rabbit could kidnap Izumi and keep her in ‘Elsewhere’ for all we knew.” 

“He sounds pretty clingy to me,” Kaminari vocalized. 

“He was more than just ‘clingy’,” Katsuki responded, “he was downright obsessed with her. Sometimes, Izumi’s items would disappear. It wasn’t until I caught the bastard stealing her pencil did I discover where those items went. When I told Izumi about this, she began to see White Rabbit for what he truly was, a monster. From then on, she tried to make White Rabbit leave her alone through a variety of ways, but they all failed. Desperate for him to leave her alone, she outright shouted at him to never see her again. At the time, it seemed like he listened since he nodded and never appeared in front of her again.”

“But that wasn’t the case,” Kirishima supplied. 

“Yes. One day, our class went on a trip to a castle in Europe, and everything was going fine until some of the class began acting weird. They acted like emotionless puppets, and, at night, they would wake up and mindlessly shamble to the ball room and just stand there. It seemed weird at first, but, after a few days, shit hit the fan. It was nighttime and I was going to bed until I heard Izumi screaming for help. Obviously, I ran to check what was going on and found out that our classmates were holding her down. I tried to save her, but our classmates created a human barrier and fended me off from her. I didn’t know who was behind all of it until I saw a familiar set white rabbit ears. Except this time, White Rabbit was carrying a fucking dagger with him instead of his usual pocket watch and he looked human, like an animal-human hybrid. His puppets parted like the fucking Red Sea, creating a path that ended with Izumi. Fucking bastard skipped down the path with the dagger, looking more happy than I’ve ever seen him. When she saw him, Izumi thought he was there to save her and kept thanking him for coming to her rescue. However, she was quickly cut off when White Rabbit stabbed her in the chest. Shortly after, he kissed her on the cheek while stabbing her repeatedly. He kept babbling about them never being apart again and how a ‘Council’ wanted her in ‘Elsewhere’ with them. When he stopped stabbing her, he carried her corpse and vanished in the darkness.” 

The death of Izumi caused Mina to tear up and sob at her sad ending. Hearing her sobs, Kirishima hugged his childhood friend and whispered comforting things to her. Meanwhile, Sero clenched his hands at the betrayal that the rabbit inflicted on Izumi, a person who wholeheartedly trusted him, and Kaminari glared at the ground, electricity sparking around him due to uncontrolled anger he was feeling.

“When I returned home from the trip, Auntie ran up to me and begged me to tell her what happened to Izumi. Turns out, White Rabbit had bragged to her about what he’d done to her daughter. I didn’t want to lie to her, so I told her everything and she broke down. Auntie blamed herself for the events that occurred during the trip and isolated herself from the entire world. It was only recently does she finally leave the house and that is only because my mom forces her to go outside.”

“How long has it been since Izumi died,” Mina managed to ask through her tears. 

“Six months.”

Immediately, Denki stood up, electricity still sparking around him, and announced solemnly, “I make it my main priority as a hero to save Izumi.” Katsuki shot a glare at him. “Don’t say shit like that if you aren’t fucking serious about it, Kaminari.” He shook his head.

“No, Katsuki, I’m being serious. It makes me sick how White Rabbit did all that crap to Izumi and got away with it.”

Soon enough, Hanta also stood up. “Kaminari’s right. Izumi trusted White Rabbit even during her last moments, and he stomped over that trust. Someone like him is a true villain. As heroes, it is our jobs to save those who are innocent and punish those who are guilty. As such, I will also make it my main priority to save Izumi.”

Then, Mina and Eijirou joined in. “I’ll make it my main priority too,” Kirishima pledged. “Me three,” Ashido sniffled. 

Bakugou was silent until tears began to fall down his face. “Thank you,” he sobbed, “thank you guys so much.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Shouta was silent as he heard his students’ declaration to save Bakugou’s childhood friend. He had followed them since the group had a tendency to stir up trouble, but he hadn’t expected that their leader held a burden like this. 

Fury ran through his veins as he recalled White Rabbit’s actions. To Shouta, he was absolute scum that deserved to be imprisoned in Tartarus. He had manipulated and groomed Izumi to be his dedicated follower, and, when she needed his help the most, he tore down all the trust she had put in him by killing her ruthlessly. 

However, it wasn’t his place to get revenge. All he could do is help the group as best as he could towards their goal. 

With a sigh of mourning, he jumped off the tree branch he was on and made his way back to UA to report what had happened to Nezu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Izumi’s death and White Rabbit’s true colors have been revealed! However, there is more that is still unknown. Like, why did White Rabbit specifically target Izumi? Or, why does White Rabbit keep traveling to the Overworld? All of that shall be revealed in due time! Anyway, I hope the pacing of the chapter wasn’t too much for you all. I kinda got caught up in the mood and kept typing (◠‿◠ ;). But, as always, thank you all so much reading this chapter!
> 
> Oh yeah, and the song that Inko was listening to was “La Vie en Rose” by Louis Armstrong!


	3. Denizens of the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see the dark underbelly of the Overworld.

From an illuminated balcony, a steady river of cigarette smoke flowed its way through the air into the dark, vast sky. The smoke came from none other than a confident man who had thousands of women fall at his feet, begging for him to spend time with them. He went by ‘Adonis’ in his line of work, but his real name was Midoriya Hisashi. Though, he rarely allowed people to call him that since the name left a bitter taste in his mouth after he left a certain woman. Additionally, he had grown to dislike anyone wearing the color green as well as anyone calling him anything related to ‘Dad’, ‘Father’, and the like. Women who dared to cross these taboos would usually find themselves threatened to be burned. 

Although, many people were curious as to why this was the case. Adonis was seen as laid-back and smooth who was simultaneously passionate and fiery. He could take insults straight to the face and still shrug his shoulders and claim that he didn’t really care. However, such trivial things like the color choice of clothing and nicknames angered him? Clearly, the man had a past that he didn’t want to be dug up.

“Adonis, darling,” a sweet, feminine voice called from the bedroom, “can you come back inside? I’m dying for your warmth again.” 

Soon enough, though, he had forgotten about his past and lost himself in the rhythm of the nightlife, things like that were better buried and left behind. Hisashi had been muted and instead a low, smooth voice came from Adonis.

“Baby, you have no idea how much I want to come back inside right now. But, you’ve got to be patient. After all, I won’t have full control of my actions if I come back too early.” 

Soft hands that had never experienced hard work in its lifetime caressed Adonis’s abdominal muscles. “Oh, Adonis, just lose yourself to that inner beast inside of you. It hurts me to see you hold back.” 

A small amount of disgust wormed its way into Adonis’s heart, but he quickly shoved it away to the recesses of his mind. He put out his cigarette on an ashtray and imitated a lustful growl. “Alright,” he growled. “But remember that you brought this upon yourself.”

Adonis had spent the entire night convincing himself that he was no longer Midoriya Hisashi and that he had no family waiting for him back home, leaving him more empty he felt the day prior. _‘It’s for the best,’_ his mind would supply, _‘as long as the Red King upholds his end of the deal and my little princess is still with her mother then I can endure anything.’_ Though, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that his daughter was already in the clutches of the Red King.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The creature stood still in the dark and damp cave, staring at the sliver of light that had slipped into its home. It could’ve been wreaking havoc and plundering tresures from others, but that would entail going against what it was made to do since it had no purpose other than making sure that its target was still in its reach. However, it was hardly mindless and was capable of making actions on its own free will. Like everything else, it could think, speak, and generally communicate with others, yet it had no desire to do so. The raw infatuation from its creators ran through its entire being and constantly reminded it about its motive. 

Their obsessive—and phantom—thoughts berated the creature for being unsightly, hideous, revolting. They claimed that no one would ever come to love its large, bird-like feet, or its head that had a strong resemblance to that of a fish, or even its strange taste in waistcoats whose colors would clash with that of its scales. They had snuffed out any emotional autonomy within the creature and left it craving for affection and positivity from none other than its target.

According to the infatuated thoughts, the creature’s target loved everyone and everything unconditionally. They saw the best in everyone, even if they were a sinner from Hell. It had done nothing wrong, it had been a good pawn, so surely its target would forgive it for being so unsightly. The chance of meeting—to be accepted and loved by—them was the only thing that kept it going in its miserable life. Yet, like all other things, there was a catch. 

Its creators warned it of enemies that came from another world, enemies that would cross over and kidnap its target. Prior to its target liberation at the hands of its creators, the enemies had tortured the target and imprisoned them in a rusty cage. They would only get crumbs of food to eat and a drop of leaking water to drink. What was worst of all, however, was that tea time was _always_ interrupted midway through. Truly, the target must have been through much suffering, but at least they were safe and sound in its world.

Although, that wasn’t the end of it. The enemies were planning to cross over once more to kidnap its target and torture them again. But the creature swore never to let that happen. When the time comes, it would fight to the death to protect its target. After all, it was created to do so.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

It was a less than average day in the bar, and Kurogiri was fearing for the condition of his counter. 

A few hours ago, a pair of identical twins wearing black and white striped shirts, imperial red suspenders, midnight black slacks, and fashionable, porcelain white gloves had barged into the bar, claiming they wanted to talk to the ‘TV Toddler’. Nobody knew who the ‘TV Toddler’ was, so the patrons either told them to leave or ignored them. However, the twins were insistent on meeting the mysterious person and kept shouting for the ‘TV Toddler’ to come out and talk to them. Of course, all the noise caused Tomura to come down from his room to see what was going on, but, at the sight of the teen, they gasped and smiled widely, both calling him the ‘TV Toddler’. 

Which brings Kurogiri to what’s unfolding in front of him.

“Hallo, TV Toddler! My brother and I are here to,” 

“Propose an offer to you that you can’t refuse!”

What was even more annoying was that the pair of twins would always finish each other’s sentences, as if they knew what the other would say. It was impressive at first, even looked staged, but, as they continued to speak, it was clear that it was both natural and annoying. And while Kurogiri learned how to control his temper during these nuisances, Tomura did not. So, there were two maddening twins and a man-child, who could disintegrate anything with the touch of five fingers, in a bar. Clearly, _nothing_ would go wrong!

“Kurogiri,” Tomura growled with irritation, “what are these two NPCs doing here?”

The second twin looked at the unkempt man with tilted his head in confusion—something the other twin did as well in unison. “‘NPC’s? Is that the,”

“‘Gaming slang’ White Rabbit told us you’d use? If so, what,” 

“Does ‘NPC’ mean?”

The young villain’s anger quickly turned into confusion as he examined the two twins. “You don’t know what an NPC is? What kind of uncultured brats are you? An NPC is a non-playable character!” 

“We’re sorry,” the first twin started.

“But we don’t understand ‘gaming slang’. You see,”

“There are no videogames in our world. Instead,”

“We have tea time and chess!”

“Chess?” Tomura looked at them with bafflement. “Who would play that grandparents’ game?”

The two twins stared at the other in shock as if he had said something scandalous. “‘Grandparents’ game’? How rude! Chess is,”

“A game for all ages that,”

“Enriches the mind! It teaches you,”

“Strategy as well as,”

“Problem-solving skills!”

“Whatever,” Shigaraki said, brushing off the twins, “what do you want? I know that you two didn’t come here to preach about chess and tea.”

The two twins pouted before both simultaneously letting out a sigh. “We were told to come here to,”

“Offer a proposition for you,”

“That would benefit both parties.”

The man-child examined the two others. “That’s great and all, but first, who are you guys?”

Remembering that they had forgotten to greet themselves, they both bowed in a respectful manner. “We’re sorry for that,” the first twin started, “I’m Tweedledee and this is my twin,”

“Tweedledum,” the other greeted. Shortly after, both of them stood up straight. 

“And we want you and your army to,”

“Eliminate the students of the hero school,

“UA.”

The entire bar grew silent at the request as Kurogiri set down the glass he was cleaning. The mist that had concealed his identity seemed a bit more sharp at the ends and his yellow eyes squinted at the twins. “That’s quite the request you’re making,” the bartender responded, “but can you two afford the price?” At the bartender’s response, the twins started laughing uncontrollably, making their laughter the only sound heard in the bar. 

Once they had calmed down, the second twin began his sentence. “It’s not a request,”

“You silly geese! It’s an,”

“Offer! If you guys kill the students of Class 1-A,”

“You will get an army of brainless servants,”

“That are _waaaay_ better than your Nomus,”

“In every way, shape, and form! Plus, those students won’t try,”

“To take back our Queen,”

“If they’re dead!”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“So you’re telling me,” Kai started, “that if I kill all of the students of UA, I’ll get an endless supply of drugs?”

The man sitting in front of him inhaled the vapor from his hookah and blew out a thumbs-up.

“Alright, I might as well destroy UA while I’m getting rid of all these diseases.”


	4. A Post Online

“So, according to you, Katsuki and his group of friends want to get revenge on an anthropomorphic rabbit called White Rabbit who supposedly killed his childhood sweetheart?” 

Shouta nodded in response to Nezu’s question. “Yes, from what I heard, White Rabbit was infatuated with his childhood friend, Midoriya Izumi, and murdered her in order to make her his or something similar to that.”

Nezu hummed at the affirmation and picked up a few documents that seemed old and worn-out as they were somewhat dusty. “This is quite troubling. White Rabbit killed Midoriya with the confidence of knowing that he, or his associates, has an ability to reanimate the dead. What’s more is that they have a method of transportation from ‘Elsewhere’ to here.” Nezu then dusted off the documents and glanced over the text before setting them down and staring at Shouta again. “However, I may have some information about this elusive ‘Elsewhere’ that I acquired from a few...acquaintances.” 

Shouta waited for the animal to explain what Elsewhere was, but it never happened. Instead, an awkward silence filled the air. 

“Nezu,” Aizawa started, “are you going to elaborate on what Elsewhere is?” 

The principal chuckled at the teacher’s curiosity and rapped his paws on the table with a sadistic smirk on his face. “As much as I would like to tell you,” he said with a false apology, “I cannot divulge this information to you. There is no concrete evidence proving that it is true, and I’d rather you all not misguided by fake data.”

The pro hero clicked his tongue in disappointment and left the room, leaving the animal alone in his office. Although, he wasn’t alone for long as a white, anthropomorphic mouse came into Nezu’s office by using a teapot, but, despite the surprising entrance, Nezu was not startled. 

“Hello, Dormouse. I see you heard our conversation. I must say, you have got to change that eavesdropping habit of yours. Such an undesirable trait is below Elsewhere’s Council.”

The mouse, named Dormouse, glared at the other and took a doll out of his purple byzantine waistcoat. The item bore a strong resemblance a voodoo doll, and it seemed as if it was crafted to look exactly like Nezu as there were no differences between the two’s appearance. Then, Dormouse withdrew a clear, glass dagger from the other pocket of his waistcoat. At the sight of the doll and dagger in his hands, the mouse smiled murderously. 

“Skip the jejune topics, rat.” Dormouse held the dagger to the doll’s unscarred eye. “You knowingly allowed your chess piece to investigate our Queen’s past. By doing so, you agreed to play our game, yet, just a few days ago, you said you didn’t want to play. Because of that, I was _humiliated_ during our conference!” The dagger got increasingly close to the top of the eye. “I’d like for you to explain yourself, Nezu, or your left eye will match your right. Or maybe, your left eye will not be able to see anymore.” 

The mention of his previous response made Nezu’s mood grow solemn. He clenched his paws and stared at Dormouse with a silent anger. “I refused to partake in your game because I was not aware of the horrors you and your associates inflicted on your own Queen,” Nezu explained before sipping some tea to quell his forming rage. “She might’ve had dreams and aspirations when she was still living. It is such a shame that you all betrayed her and ruined her chances of becoming what she truly wanted to be.” 

The other animal scoffed at Nezu’s retort. “I doubt that All Might’s successor wanted to have One For All. What was his name? Ah, yes, Shinsou Hitoshi. He probably didn’t want to have that large burden placed on him so suddenly, yet he accepted All Might’s quirk. You get what I’m saying, don’t you? Shinsou knew he _had_ to inherit One For All. Similarly, our Queen had to take the throne. Desires are void when confronted by necessities.”

“At least Shinsou consented,” Nezu replied, “you all forced your Queen to take the throne. Don’t act like you gave her a choice, you pitiful excuse of the Mus genus.”

Nezu’s insult threw Dormouse into a blind rage, causing him to recklessly, and blindly, swing the dagger across the doll’s already scarred eye, creating an ‘x’ over it. As a result of the action, Nezu’s released a stifled squeak as the mark on the doll appeared on his eye. Blood trickled down his fur and he began to contact Recovery Girl. Realizing what he had done, Dormouse panicked and fled the office, using the teapot once again.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The next day, Hitoshi had been resting his head on his fist as he stared at the scenery outside. Then, he closed his eyes to focus on the conversations in the classroom. He shifted his attention from conversation, as they weren’t very interesting, until he heard Bakugou’s conversation with his friends. 

“-other friends too? Are they a part of that ‘Council’ White Rabbit mentioned?” Kaminari asked with genuine concern, something that was out of character for him. 

“Most likely,” Katsuki responded. “From tailing the bastard, I found out that some of his friends are Mad Hatter, White Queen, and Red King. Although, there are probably more.”

Mina hummed in thought. “Do you know how they’re like?”

Katsuki answered her with authentic disgust. “Yeah, I remember. Mad Hatter is a sadistic fuck who likes to beat his underlings for the smallest of mistakes. Plus, he acts like a drug addict when it comes to tea. White Queen is an uptight bitch who despises the color red and Red King for some reason. She’ll beat the shit out of anyone if the color red is on them, except Izumi of course. Red King is a manipulative asshole. Though, I have the least info on him.”

Shinsou’s curiosity grew the more he listened in on their conversation. From what he heard, it seemed like Bakugou and his friends were hunting down villains who worked for their boss, Izumi. Although, he waited before interfering in order to understand the full story.

“Bakubro,” Kirishima started, “I get that you wanted to find more details about White Rabbit and the Council, but I don’t think you should tail White Rabbit again. These guys are extremely dangerous! Imagine what they would do to you if you get caught!”

After listening to Kirishima, Shinsou could no longer wait and remain listening. Sure, Bakugou wasn’t his favorite guy to hang around, but he definitely didn’t deserve to be killed by some villains who—from what he heard—deserved to be locked up in Tartarus because of a scouting gone wrong. The insomniac got up from his seat and approached the group, pulling up a chair while doing so. 

Katsuki stared him down with a glare that had potential to make a grown man cry. “What the hell do you want, grape?”

“Nothing, it’s just that I heard what you guys were talking about from my seat.”

Suddenly, Bakugou yanked the collar of Hitoshi’s shirt. “Can’t you just mind your own damn business,” he hissed. “What my friends and I do is none of your motherfucking concern!” Immediately, Katsuki’s friends flew to his side to calm him down.

“Bakubro! Let him down!”

“Bakugou, he probably didn’t understand anything you said!”

“Let the guy down! He’s probably bluffing!”

“No, I understood everything you guys said,” Shinsou got out, “and, Bakugou, I just want to say that you shouldn’t risk your life like that. If you need help taking down villains, you can tell us.” 

A stiff silence grew among them before Katsuki let go of the mauve-haired boy with a look of understanding on his face. Shortly after the blonde let go of the other boy, Iida and Uraraka ran to his side to see if he was hurt. 

“I don’t think you’re getting the full picture, grape wannabe,” Bakugou stated. Then, he sighed a pinched the bridge of his nose. “Didn’t think I’d have to tell anyone else,” he muttered to himself. At the sight of this, Kirishima patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, bro. I’ll handle this.” 

“Might as well explain the situation to everyone while we’re at it. Right, Bakubro?” The boy just grunted in agreement. “Got it. So, to put it simply, Bakugou here had a childhood friend named Midoriya Izumi who was manipulated and murdered by a rabbit called White Rabbit. I won’t get into the specifics ‘cause Bakugou’s kinda sensitive about that, but, if you want to know more, you can ask him yourself. Now, we—the Bakusquad—had made it our main priority to avenge her.” Kirishima turned to Shinsou. “That’s what you heard. Katsuki was basically telling us what he knew about White Rabbit and his friends.”

“But you said it yourself, what he did was dangerous,” Hitoshi pointed out. 

“Being a hero is dangerous,” Shouta said as he entered the classroom. 

Everyone turned to look at the man who entered the room. “Although, that doesn’t excuse your reckless behavior, Bakugou. Next time, tell me when you’re going to mess with anthropomorphic animals that come from another dimension, capiche?” 

Sero looked at Aizawa, confused, and asked, “How did you that they come from another dimension?”

“You all weren’t secretive about it yesterday,” was all he said before switching to another subject. “Now, Nezu said he’d be making an,”

Right as Aizawa mentioned Nezu, the speaker buzzed to life as the animal’s voice lively announced, “Hello, students of U.A! This is your principal Nezu speaking! For Class 1-A and 1-B, there has been a slight rearrangement in their field trips due to a little...incident. Instead of the two classes going to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint separately, the two classes will hold a vote as to where they will go as long as the destination is reasonable. I’m sincerely sorry for the change in plans. Anyway, have a nice day!”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Dormouse fearfully looked at Mad Hatter, clenching his waistcoat in fear.

“That was quite childish of you, Dormouse, getting angry over a harmless insult,” Mad Hatter said with underlying rage disguised as amusement. His hisbiscus purple eyes scanned the animal while his fingers danced around the hilt of a barbed whip. 

“I’m sorry,” the mouse stuttered desperately, “I’ll never lose my temper again! Please don’t hurt me!” 

However, his plead fell on deaf ears as Mad Hatter smiled like a mad man. “Bad pets deserve to be punished, don’t you think? If they’re not not disciplined, they’re bound to make the same mistakes again.” He stood up and gripped the whip. “Turn around, Dormouse.” 

Knowing it was futile to run away from him, the mouse did as he was told and took off his waistcoat, revealing a back that was riddled with scars. Mad Hatter examined his back with glee. “Good job. I’ll decrease the amount of lashes you’ll get by 3 for being obedient.” 

Shortly after, a screech was ripped out of Dormouse as the whip tore off pieces of his back.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The White Queen took a sip of the white tea and, after scowling at the taste, dumped the piping hot drink on the blindfolded child beside her. 

“Tastes horrendos. Try again.”

The child, Eri, nodded, took the cup, and briskly walked away from the White Queen. 

Eri observed her surroundings—she could still see clearly as the blindfold was thin enough to see through—and walked to the kitchen. At her entrance, she looked around to see if anyone was inside. When she discovered she was alone, she clambered onto a counter and set the cup down. Then she pushed the only window open and forced her way out. With a series of grunts and heaving breaths, she pushed herself out of the window.

She landed on a pile of—white—leaves and was ready to sprint away from the White Queen’s castle until she looked up and was face-to-face with one of the White Queen’s servants. 

Once again, Eri was dragged to the dungeons for her punishment.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Okumura Kagome smiled at the man on her computer screen, ignoring the mounds of trash that surrounded her due to fact that she rarely left her room. 

“Will I really become a queen of an entire dimension if I do this, Ren?”

The man on the screen, Ren, gave her the most charming smile. “Of course you will, darling. Everyone here in Elsewhere is _dying_ for you to become their Queen. They’re even preparing a welcoming party for you!”

Kagome’s smile grew when she learned that she was actually _wanted_ in Elsewhere. Before she met Ren, she was made fun of everyday for having a weak quirk. Everyday was filled with misery for her. But one day, Ren reached out to her on accident and something clicked. From then on, Kagome refused to leave her room in order to spend time with him. Can you blame her though? Ren was completely out of her league, yet he fell in love with a reject like her. Additionally, his crimson red hair and midnight black eyes as well as his charming personality completely entranced her. She didn’t need anything else but Ren. 

“Alright,” Okumura said with certainty and excitement, “I’ll do it, Ren!”

Kagome signed into her account online and posted a few pictures along with a message. Immediately, hundreds of people shared the post with their friends, spreading the message.

“I did it, Ren! Now, I’m ready to go to Elsewhere!”

However, he didn’t respond to her.

“Ren?”

When she looked at her screen, she found out that he blocked her. The only thing he left behind was a message saying that he was using her for a greater cause and how wasn’t sorry for doing so.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

_[Dolli Dolli]_

_‘OMG I legit went to a haunted castle! So, one day, I was just walking around, minding my own business, when I found a man in a cloak. He called himself “The Gondolier” and said that he could bring me to alternate dimension if I was able to stay on his gondola even after I was confronted with my biggest fear. Weird right? When I asked him what would happen if I fell, he said that I would wake up in my room and think that whatever happened was a dream. I thought he was joking, so I agreed to ride his gondola. And he was right! I saw my biggest fear and almost fell off the boat! But I was lucky and managed to stay on the gondola for the rest of the ride! When I arrived, I saw a castle that was literally in the middle of nowhere. Inside it, there was a ghost girl who was floating through the halls, crying about how no one mourned for her after she died! Absolute nightmare fuel! I got so scared, I ran to The Gondolier and begged him to take me back! Afterwards, he told me not to tell anyone about this, but, I mean, he is not the boss of me! Anyway, I want to see if you all can stay in the castle for more than a night! Also, here’s a few pictures!’_

__

_[pic1]_

_[pic2]_

_[pic3]_

_[pic4]_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chase has begun! Who’s going to win? Find out next time on The Castle of Elsewhere!


	5. Tea with Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elsewhere begins to make their move.

Izumi wiped the sweat off her forehead once she saw the hundreds of plushies that were piled up, and, although she treasured all of the plushies, her attention was directed at one plushie in particular. 

With a smile, she picked up the toy plush and activated her quirk before gently tapping the nose of the plush. Then, Izumi did what she did best, giving the toy an identity and purpose.

“Hello, I am Izumi, your creator as well as the Queen of Life. As for you, your name is Kacchan. I do not wish to designate you a hobby, so that is something you will have to discover yourself. Also, your duty is to serve as a scout of sorts. This means you will travel to the Overworld regularly and update me on what is going on there, but you cannot lie about anything and you must tell me something as you see it.” Meanwhile, in her head, her thoughts continued her small speech, deciding what quirks the plush would have, what transformations it can undergo, its talents, and so on.

Shortly after, the toy began to move and jumped out of her hands and did a backflip before landing. Izumi smiled at the toy’s little stunt. 

“Thank you, your Majesty,” the toy said with the exact same voice as Katsuki. 

Out of curiosity, Izumi asked, “Can you turn into your human form please?”

Without resistance, the plush nodded and turned into a human with a poof of glittery clouds. As expected, the human form of Kacchan looked exactly like Katsuki, except Katsuki would _never_ wear a Pomeranian onesie. At the sight, Izumi felt a slight ache of longing as well as pride. 

“Thank you. You can go back into your plush form now.”

Kacchan examined her and shook his head. “I can tell you prefer my human form, so I won’t turn back.”

Too weak-willed to tell the plush no, Izumi sighed and picked up another toy in order to give it life, allowing Kacchan to remain in his human form.

The Queen admired the plush toy. How could she not? Each and every plush she had made was crafted with love, and this batch of plushies was no exception. However, what made this bunch of toys different from the others is that they were based off of real people in Katsuki’s life. 

After Cheshire came back from his visit from U.A, he immediately went to her and talked about it. It just so happened that Katsuki also went to U.A as well. So, as inspiration, Izumi decided to use Class 1-A and 1-B as the design for her new plushies. 

“Good morning, I am Izumi, but many here know me as the Queen of Life. Your name is Urako, and your duty is to make sure everyone in both Elsewhere and the Overworld has sweet dreams.”

Although being the Queen of Life was hard work, especially with the Council being overprotective of her, Izumi enjoyed her position, but there was always something in the back of her mind that yearned to be something more...heroic than a Queen.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Waves of white petals from yoshino cherry trees danced in the wind around the White Queen’s gazebo while said queen and Mad Hatter sat calmly under the gazebo’s roof, sipping white tea. 

“How is our Izumi doing these days?” White Queen asked in an uncharacteristically yet genuine soft tone, something that was common of her when she was talking about the greenette. 

Mad Hatter took a sip of his tea before taking a short dramatic pause and answering White Queen’s question. 

“According to White Rabbit, she’s doing swell under our tutelage, as always.” He took another sip of his tea. “Have you heard of Dormouse’s recent actions in the Overworld?”

A contempt chuckle came from the maiden. “How could I not? That rodent is not capable of restraining his own temper, but what could we expect from a lowly animal such as he? I must say, you were wise to punish that creature. If you do not hold your underlings to their mistakes, they will think they are better than you and begin to commit more wrongdoings.”

A pair of boysenberry purple and pine green eyes glanced at White Queen, and a thoughtful hum filled the silence. 

“You seem to talk from experience,” the man pointed out.

“I am. Recently, I have taken a girl in as my maid, but she has been extremely disrespectful!”

Curiosity formed in Mad Hatter’s chest. It wasn’t common for White Queen to take in maids and servants due to the fact that she was picky about who she employed. To be chosen by White Queen equates to being one of the best maids or servants in the entirety of Elsewhere. As a result, her servants and maids are exceedingly loyal and reverent towards her. As such, a rude maid belonging to White Queen was unheard of.

No longer able to hold back his curiosity, Mad Hatter asked, “How so?”

“I have been waiting to tell this to someone,” she exclaimed, but, once she realized what she’d done, she cleared her throat. “I mean, that child complains about her blindfold incessantly! It’s as if she _wants_ to disgust me with those repulsing red eyes! Additionally, she attempts to escape my castle everyday! At first, I refrained from punishing her since she is a child out of the kindness of my heart, but, with how she is acting, I have no choice!”

“How unfortunate,” he responded, “although, you might be able to dispose of that insufferable child now that Izumi sent us new citizens. Speaking of which, you are aware of what those citizens are based off of, correct?”

“Of course I am aware. They were inspired by the despicable classmates of that Bakugou Katsuki. Believe me, the thought of allowing an Overworld-inspired citizen to work for me was deplorable, but Hagatooru, Mangashi, Kuroihai, and Reigo are exceptionally helpful.”

“Izumi seemed to put more love into these citizens, so it is not hard to believe that they would be superior compared to the other citizens. Even _he_ said he would use them to good use!”

The mention of ‘him’ made White Queen scowl. “One of my white maidens was able to gather information from that bastard king’s crimson gentlemen. Apparently, he is going to use some of his newly gained underlings—Ashina and Kamenenki from what she told me—to bait Bakugou Katsuki further.”

Mad Hatter pouted childishly at the news. “That king! He is not allowing us to have a turn! I was going to scare Bakugou Katsuki and his classmates a bit before tossing them around!”

Soft panting interrupted the two’s conversation, prompting White Queen to glare at the interruptor. Once she noticed who it was, her stare softened somewhat.

Said person was a teenage girl dressed in a frilly, white maid outfit. Delicate white hair styled in a bob slightly swayed in wind while managing to get some stray blossoms stuck in her hair, and light grey eyes reflected worry and shame as they stared at their madam.

“Hagatooru, I see you are not in your invisible form, as I requested. I must say, you look quite beautiful when you are not invisible. But I digress, you may speak.”

“My Queen,” Hagatooru panted, “Eri attacked some of your white maidens while trying to escape!”

There was hostile silence in the air until White Queen stood up. 

“Hagatooru, please escort Mad Hatter to his home,” she ordered before walking into her palace with a look of rage on her face.

“Yes, your Majesty.”

Mad Hatter looked at the maid with a small grin on his face. “Seems like that child will be beaten black and blue by the time your Queen is done with her,” he joked.

“Of course, Mister Mad Hatter.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

White Rabbit admired the palace walls in admiration and wonder. He and the others knew that the palace changed appearance depending on the ruler of Elsewhere, and the type of beauty the palace displayed was something that could only be achieved by a kind-hearted and determined soul. Although, two prime examples of this fact were the palace’s presentations when the 18th and 63rd queens of Elsewhere.

During the rule of the 18th queen, or the Queen of Callousness, the palace walls were made out of obsidian and a never ending flow of blood seeped out of every crevice. Bloodied shackles and weapons lined the walls, despite never being used; illusions of beaten victims and their groans of pain were present no matter where one was; windows that revealed the beauty of Elsewhere were barred and rusted with fingerprints all over them; there was a constant cold breeze within the palace that came from nowhere; and any furniture, except for the Queen’s throne, were made out of cold steel and often felt like furniture that belonged to prison. The very thought of the Queen of Callousness’s castle brought the phantom scent of blood along with it.

On the other hand, the palace of the 63rd queen, the Queen of Control, refused to allow anyone to leave said structure. No one knew what the walls were made out of since kudzu grew rampantly over them. Walking anywhere became a hassle as the floor was basically a thick, heavy layer of wet mud. Additionally, sundews flourished on the ground, and they were somehow strong enough to imprison larger prey, such as White Rabbit in both his animal form and hybrid form, despite their small size. If one was unfortunate enough to stay still or get more sundews stuck to them, they would be digested by the plants. This fact was made true when abductees from the Overworld—usually young men that the Queen of Control had a crush on—were too weak to escape the sundews and became plant food. 

White Rabbit shook his head in order to forget those dark memories. Once Izumi became the Queen of Life, the Council had decided to never dig up any remembrance of all the former rulers. After all, no one wanted to recollect the constant abuse they experienced, twisting them from imaginary companions meant to comfort the misfortunate to immortal slaves who could do anything without questioning their master. White Rabbit grumbled when he noticed that he was still dwelling on his past and admired the condition of the palace under the Queen of Life’s rule again to forget the painful years prior to the discovery of Izumi.

The many lit candles that lined the halls caused the opal walls to shine while hundreds of scrolls that honored the former queens—something that White Rabbit heavily disliked, but the Queen of Life was adamant in honoring their memory—hung from the multitudes of arches that was incorporated in the creation of the palace. The ceiling was covered in pillows that had each Elsewhere citizen’s name and aspiration, and the ground was made out of something soft and hospitable to plant life as flowers such as Peonies, Bluebells, white Lilies, Magnolias, and Daisies prospered.

White Rabbit brushed his fingers against the flowers and smiled at thought of Izumi until he heard a voice he could never forget.

“Kireiji! I already told you, I have to monitor the Overworld today! Besides, you have to make sure that unwanted guests can cross over to here!”

“But Kacchan! I want to train!”

In his rage, White Rabbit crushed the flowers and silently glowered at the sight of ’Kacchan’. The animal guessed that it was most likely a plush that was created to look like Katsuki instead of Katsuki himself, but anything that bore a resemblance to the Queen’s former friend made the rabbit angry. However, he restrained his anger and walked away from the scene, mentally noting to mention the current situation to the Council.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Katsuki and his friends, along with Shinsou who wanted to know more about Izumi, sat down at their table in the cafeteria, but, instead of explaining the entire situation to the insomniac, Katsuki was more focused on the numerous conversations around him that spoke of the latest rumor.

_“Have you seen that post online? The one about that alternate world or something like that.”_

_“You’re talking about Dolli Dolli’s post, right? I read it and saw the images!”_

_“Do you think it’s real?”_

_“What are you talking about? Of course it’s real! I checked the images and they’re all original! Plus, my brother—who’s really good with Pictoshop—told me that those images couldn’t be pictoshopped.”_

Bakugou’s friends glanced at him nervously, and Kirishima placed his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder in order to ground him back into the present.

“Bakubro, it’s fine. It’s probably just someone trying to gain popularity.”

“It can’t be a coincidence,” the blonde growled. “Another dimension that can’t be accessed through normal means along with a dead girl who lives there? It’s obvious that the user is talking about Elsewhere.”

“Yeah, but that’s pretty flimsy evidence to prove that Dolli is talking about Elsewhere,” Kaminari reasoned, “there could be another dimension besides Elsewhere, or all of it could be staged in order for them to become popular, just like Kirishima said.”

While the group was discussing about the legitimacy of the rumor, Shinsou waited patiently for them to finish and observed the cafeteria to pass the time. 

Mauve purple eyes combed through each student in the cafeteria until Shinsou saw two clones of both Ashido and Kaminari. To check to see if they were the original, he glanced over to Bakugou and confirmed that the two were still with him. At first, Hitoshi thought that they might’ve been students who had a disguising quirk or something similar to that, but that possibility was proven false since the two appeared confused about their surroundings as they were examining objects such as tables and chairs like it was the first time they’ve ever seen them. And, although Shinsou wasn’t the type to interrupt conversations, he did so anyway, knowing that this situation was an exception. 

“Hey, Bakugou, do you know why there are duplicates of your friends over there?”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Raisin?”

Betraying his statement, Bakugou, along with his friends, looked over to the center of the cafeteria and saw Mina and Kaminari. Then, the two clones seemed to notice their staring as they looked back at them with a crooked smile. 

“The hell?”

“Bakubro, what’s going on?”

The clones began to walk towards them and stopped when they were face-to-face with the group. The Mina clone eyed Bakugou before she opened her mouth to speak, but the voice that didn’t come out didn’t belong to her. Instead, it belonged to a man. 

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve last seen you, Katsuki,” the Mina clone said sardonically, “the last time was around the time of Izumi’s death, yes?” 

Katsuki glared at the clone and grabbed the collar of her shirt, explosions crackling in his palm. “Who the fuck are you, and how the hell do you know about that?”

Instead of the female clone answering, the Kaminari clone used his electricity quirk and paralyzed the group. “You shouldn’t hurt Ashina like that,” the clone said with the exact same voice as the other. “Izumi—or rather _my daughter_ —worked so hard on Ashina and Kaminenki; they have much more use than the others.”

“You didn’t answer my question, motherfucker,” Bakugou gritted out, “who are you?”

This time, Ashina spoke, “I’m wounded by your words! Just a few minutes ago you were talking about me! You called me a, and I quote, ‘manipulative asshole’. Times like these makes me feel assured that bringing Izumi with us was the best choice. After all, imagine how cruel she would become if we left her with _you_ of all people!”

Kaminari stared at the clones with shock while covertly charging up an attack. “You’re the Red King, aren’t you,” he asked.

“Correct,” Kaminenki and Ashina exclaimed in unison. “I am, in fact, the Red King as well as Izumi’s father. Although, it’s not ‘the Red King’ it’s just ‘Red King’.”

“You’re not Izumi’s father,” Katsuki snapped, “you don’t even deserve that title!”

The joyous expression on the two clones’ faces fell into ominous blank ones that held the promise of pain as they stared at the blonde. “Excuse me?”

Meanwhile, Shinsou, who had been watching the whole scene play out, knew that the issue at hand was beginning to spiral out of control and shouted, “Hey, 1-A Wannabes! What color do you get when you cross red with white?”

Kaminenki and Ashina paused before responding with, “Pink. Why are you asking?”

Suddenly, their eyes glassed over and stopped moving until they collapsed on the floor like marionettes.

The group gaped at the scene and Shinsou turned to look at them, “I don’t know about you guys, but I think that Elsewhere is beginning to make their move.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s not much to say here, but I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and remember to be sanitary!


	6. Seeing Something New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, there will be a new feature(??) that I will be trying out! Said feature is designated music for a section of a story in order to give it more intensity. 
> 
> But don’t worry about not knowing when and what music should be playing! As you read, there will be cues that will show you when to play a certain song and what song that should be playing. Also, some of the songs I might use throughout the story can only be found on YouTube, so keep that in mind! 
> 
> Finally, if you all don’t like this feature—or think there should be an improvement, tell me in the comments! I’ve never tried this before, but, after reading some fanfictions of Izuku being a badass, I want to see if it’ll enhance the reading experience! Maybe, sometime in the future, I will do the whole characters-sing-a-song-that-conveniently-suits-the-situation if you all like this new feature!
> 
> Thank you for putting up with this brief interruption!

Shinsou, Bakugou, and the rest of the self-proclaimed ‘Bakusquad’ were silent as they allowed Shinsou’s words to sink in. However, while the group was trying to piece together reasons as to why Elsewhere would provoke them, the unpossessed bodies of Kaminenki and Ashina floated in the air before releasing an ear-splitting shriek, forcing all of the students in the cafeteria to quiet down and pay attention to the two puppets. After the two servants were sure that everyone was paying attention to them, they hovered over to Katsuki and Hitoshi.

“That’s not very nice of you to kick our Master out like that,” Kaminenki exclaimed, except this time the voice was an exact imitation of the original student the puppet was based on. “He just wanted to introduce himself!”

Ashina then jumped into the conversation, with her own voice—or, more specifically, a replication of Mina’s voice—with a, “Yeah! Do you know how much planning our Master went through in order to get here! We had to avoid Mad Hatter’s servants!” Not long after she finished, she combed through the cafeteria, seemingly looking for something. “Speaking of which, where are the references for his servants? I heard from Hantero that we were made to look like you all.”

Murmurs broke out at the Mina’s clone statement; most of them relating to how the event must’ve been planned by villains. Although, the talking didn’t last long as a new voice abruptly joined in. 

“Get back here, you drips! You’re not letting our Master have any fun!”

Suddenly, a quartet of more clones imitating U.A. alumni jumped onto a cleared area of a table, doing stunts in midair which garnered awe from the students. Said clones were perfect replicas of a certain students with a fire and ice quirk, creation ability, air-solidifying power, and a copying quirk. In contrast to the majority of the students’ amazement, the appearance of the quartet caused Kaminenki to groan in annoyance and Ashina to complain about the situation. 

“Out of _all_ the servants and slaves that Mad Hatter has, he chose you guys! I just knew today wasn’t the right day to infiltrate this dumb Overworldian school!” The Monoma clone smirked in contempt at the sight of the other two. Meanwhile, the real Monoma shuddered at how the replica of him copied his attitude perfectly.

“Don't think _you_ have a right to complain, you animal,” clone Neito mockingly responded, “how do you think think we feel being in the same vicinity as you barbarians? It’s utterly humiliating to think that we came from the same batch!”

“Calm yourself, Neitoma,” the Yaoyorozu replica ordered. “As much as the presence of these savages irk us, we must maintain our Master’s dignity.” Clone Todoroki nodded in agreement before stating, “Yes, we are here to both force those two back into Elsewhere as well as leave the Master’s show for the humans to watch.” 

The genuine Todoroki, fed up with the games the clones were playing, created an ice platform to raise himself up. 

“Who are you, and why do you look like me?” The Todoroki clone turned towards him and eyed him with a disdainful stare. 

“Let’s get this over with,” he commanded, “looking at my reference is repulsive.”

Not even a nod later, all the clones vanished in a pile of cotton, polyester, and green glitter while leaving a small and dusty crystal ball in the center of the room. Said ball rolled towards Shinsou who picked it up and rotated it between his fingers. Within the orb, swirls of purple and green intertwined and seemed to dance together, and, in the center, a white gleam shone brightly, tempting Shinsou to rub the excess dust off the ball. So, he did. The action then caused the ball to vibrate and jump out of his hand in favor of floating above it and slowly releasing a dark purple mist which began to spread out but not cause any adverse side effects.

Once the fog coated the entire ceiling, a yellow silhouette of a top hat illuminated the purple cloud. 

“Hello, dear U.A alumni,” a chipper, masculine voice echoed from the mist, “this show was created and directed by the one and only, Mad Hatter! The summary—or preview—for my show is that this little exhibition is a tale about a girl who once belonged to a world of magic but was taken and hidden away in a world full of cruelty and humdrum. As she grows up, her evil kidnappers brainwashes her into assimilating with their cruel world. This display is the journey the girl takes in order to return to her original dimension. Now, without further ado, let the show begin!” Afterwards, the top hat faded away and the purple mist darkened into a grey hue. 

***Please play “A Nostalgic Dream” by Peter Gundry***

A green silhouette of a little girl appeared in the black fog, dancing with an azure outline of a rabbit, snow-white shape of a woman, crimson profile of a man, royal-yellow configuration of a man wearing a top hat, and an amethyst-purple silhouette of a cat. Although there was no sound to accompany the display, the facial expressions on the girl’s outline made it clear that she was laughing and enjoying herself. Then, the royal-yellow man gave the girl a russet-brown teddy bear and looked as if he was instructed her to do something. The girl nodded and stared at the teddy bear before giving it a tap on the nose and talking to it, if the silent movement of her mouth was supposed to indicate something. 

After she stopped talking to the toy, the bear wriggled in her hands and she let it go, allowing the teddy bear to walk and move its arms around in a flying motion. 

The other shadows were still until the red man and the white woman ran towards the girl and gave her a hug. Shortly after, the rest of the outlines joined in the hug. 

Meanwhile, Bakugou growled at the display. “They’re showing us fucking propaganda,” he snarled. “They want to make us look like we’re the villains here when, in all actuality, they are.” However, Kirishima shushed him, replying, “I know, but we need to keep watching. You never know if they will slip and give us a lead that’ll help us.”

More russet-brown shapes of toys joined in the hug, and, all in all, the moment was heartwarming to the students until black configurations of a woman and boy with spiky—almost explosive—hair suddenly appeared. The boy ran towards the toys and—what seemed to be—exploding them while the woman was focused on taking the girl who was crying and kicking the woman, attempting to run back to the other colored silhouettes. Unfortunately, her attempts were futile as the woman kept dragging her away and, once they reached the edge of the fog, vanished along with her. The boy, who was busy warding off the rest of the outlines with explosions, disappeared as well after the woman, leaving the shapes to mourn about the kidnapped girl.

Then, the scene changed and showed the black shadows once more with the girl. While the woman tied the girl to a chair and force fed her a bowl of something against the girl’s protests, the boy gestured over to someone and many more black shadows of children appeared in the grey fog. All of the children began showing off their quirks by bullying other black silhouettes of their peers. The girl cried out towards the shadows and shook her head furiously. Her reaction caused the boy to shout—even though there was no sound, it was obvious that he was shouting—at his lackeys, making them all stop what they were doing. Then, the boy looked around before spotting and picking up large amounts of rock, forming them into a golem-like creature. Afterwards, he pointed at the rocks and untied the girl from her chair. At her release, she doubled over and black tar escaped her mouth, seemingly crying all the while. Although, despite everything, the girl forced herself to stand up and hobbled over to the rocks. 

She stared at the shape and more black tar dripped from her, except this time they took the form of tears. Kneeling down, she gave tapped the golem’s forehead, causing the golem to shift a bit. 

Shortly after, the entire scene was engulfed in red until it cleared itself up. 

This time, the silhouette of the girl was older and half of her was black. She was once again tied up to chair and forced to eat until she threw up black tar. Then, the azure outline of the rabbit materialized in front of the girl, causing her to cry in joy. The rabbit hugged her before untying her and picking her up, disappearing in a cloud of light blue mist. 

***You can stop your music now (＾∇＾)***

After the show was over, the mist evaporated, leaving the students in silence. However, not even a second after the fog cleared, Bakugou yelled, “Bullshit!”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“Kid, you have no idea what you’re getting into. If you think this is a game, you better back off.”

Haimawari sighed as, once again, The Gondolier refused to bring him to the elusive Elsewhere that was mentioned online. Kouichi had already decided that he was going to meet up with the ghost and help her cross over to the afterlife, but he knew that running into The Gondolier was extremely difficult if not impossible. Yet, here the man was, in the flesh and ready to travel to Elsewhere. How did Kouichi know that the man in front of him was The Gondolier? Vigilante intuition, he says.

“No, I’m serious! I want to go to Elsewhere!”

The Gondolier turned around to give him a glare. “I don’t know what the Internet is saying about it, but I know for a fact that it must be wrong.” The young vigilante stared at The Gondolier. 

“How would you know if it was wrong if you haven’t seen it?” A harsh chuckle escaped the older man, a chuckle that spoke of traumatizing sights.

“Does that post mention the enslavement of any humans from our world? How our own kind is beaten and tortured, only to be forced into a career they never wanted in the first place? I don’t blame them though. If they don’t get their plushie paws on poor humans, then they themselves are forced to be in those careers. Meanwhile, the Council sit in Elsewhere brainwashing their so-called Queen into believing that she belongs there, when, in reality, she was kidnapped from our world and tore away from her family. Answer me, brat, does that post mention anything I’ve just said so far?”

The truth of the other dimension stunned Haimawari. He took out his phone in order to look at the post once more and noticed that nothing of what The Gondolier had said was mentioned or even hinted at. 

“No,” he answered. 

“Exactly. Now, let me tell you something, I’ll bring you to the other world, but, and here’s the thing, I am not to bring my gondola in Elsewhere, neither is anyone with me. I can only rest it in Nowhere. From there, you’re going to have to make your way to Elsewhere, and, if you’re lucky, you can enter the Palace. So, do you still want to go with me?”

Hesitation filled the young vigilante at the news. _‘I want to help that ghost,’_ he thought, _‘but is it worth my own life?’_ Silence hung in the air as the vigilante weighed his options. However, The Gondolier sighed and shook his head.

“You can’t have any hesitation, brat. If you do, you will be doomed to be another slave in Nowhere. It’s all or nothing.”

As The Gondolier got into his gondola, he felt a tug on his cloak. Kouichi stared the man dead in eyes and said with confidence, “I want to go with you.” A small smile formed on the man’s face. “That’s more like it, kid. Now, get on.”

Kouichi didn’t waste any time as he jumped into the gondola; the boat rapidly floating higher until zooming into nothingness. Soon after, the sight of cities and bustling streets were replaced with wastelands and buildings in terrible condition. Then, the boat glided downwards towards the earth before stopping once it touched the ground.

The vigilante stepped out of the gondola only to experience a fit of coughs due to the thick, heavy smoke that filled the air. 

“Kid,” The Gondolier worried, although he’d never admit it, “slow down will you? Don’t just leave my barrier like that, you’re just asking for pain. Here.” He pulled out a respirator. “Put this on. It’ll help you.”

Haimawari quickly put on the respirator and breathed in, grateful for the clean air that entered his lungs. Once, he was done taking deep breaths, he examined his surrounding and was disturbed by what Nowhere had to offer.

Humans varying from teenagers to the middle-aged were chained up and forced into lines as half-human-half-creatures shouted at them. Those that were noisy were dragged off into a building and promptly silenced through various means that didn’t involve death. One of them, being a young man with beady eyes and a tuft of black hair, had his mouth sewn shut, and, by the looks of it, the person who sewed them shut was an amateur at best. Then, once the noisy ones couldn’t make any sound, a half-human-half-eagle went down the line, examining each person from the head to their toes, before announcing what career the person would be best in. Afterwards, hybrid grunts would haul them off to the building they were to work in.

However, Kouichi couldn’t stop focusing on the last person in the last line of the batch. She was a beautiful young woman who probably had big dreams and a bright future yet, by a stroke of cruel unluckiness, was brought here to be enslaved. As the eagle-human hybrid approached and eyed her, Haimawari felt as if time slowed down. There was a thoughtful silence while the hybrid was thinking until he made his decision.

“Prostitution.”

The poor woman, well aware of what they had in store for her, trembled before being dragged to who knows where, crying out for mercy. Kouichi could no longer hold back his rage as he stomped towards the hybrid and shouted at him. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Who do you think you are to dictate who she should be, you bastard?”

The hybrid stared at him, unimpressed with his heroic spirit. “Who do I think I am? Well, I am Hidaeva, one of Caterpillar’s trusted servants. And I think it would do you good to know your place, _Overworldian_.”

Although the insult didn’t affect the vigilante, he felt the need to fight back. 

“What about your Queen? Don’t you know that she’s from our world?” 

Not only did Hidaeva twitch at the mention of the Queen, but the entire group of hybrids did as well. The Gondolier rushed over to Kouichi to silence him, but it was too late.

“The Queen of Life is from the Overworld, that much is true. However, she is not like you Overworldians. Her heart is pure while the average Overworldian’s is filled with the tar of evil.” Hidaeva stared right into the vigilante’s chest. “Although, it seems your heart is pure as well, despite your annoying disposition.” He walked over to The Gondolier and gave him a thumbs up. “I guess you _finally_ brought a worthy human. You know, my boss was just talking about how he would turn your bones into powder and sell it if you kept bringing incompetent humans over here. Luckily, you managed to prove yourself in the nick of time!”

Hidaeva’s words hung in the air for a short time until The Gondolier gave the eagle hybrid a small smile. 

“I guess so. Ah, but, please tell Caterpillar that one of his cartels in the Overworld got compromised due to an anonymous tip to the police force. He probably didn’t get to hear the news since he’s so caught up with his schemes with a certain plague-doctor-themed criminal group.”

Trembling at the message, Hidaeva nodded. “I’ll be sure to report to him, Chizome.”

“Good. Now, let’s go, kid. It’d be better to get to the bridge to Elsewhere sooner than later.” Haimawari stared at Hidaeva before nodding at The Gondolier.

“Right!”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Shigaraki tried to contain his rage while playing one of his games, but, once he lost for the tenth time, it came bursting out of his chest and took over, causing him to disintegrate the game console. This, in turn, only infuriated him more.

“Goddamnit!” Tomura scratched his neck, ignoring the droplets of blood forming around his unkempt nails. “Those dumb NPCs keep getting on my fucking nerves! ‘TV Toddler’, my ass! I’ll show them who’s player one!”

Kurogiri sighed as he placed down the glass he was cleaning in order to get a dust pan. “Tomura,” he said calmly, “as much as it angers you, you must see the benefits that will come with becoming their allies.” Although, his attempt at calming down the heir was futile as he kept on disintegrating objects left and right. 

“Benefits? Yeah right. We have the Nomus that were crafted by _Sensei_! What would an army of human shapeshifting plushies do for us when they’re nothing to the Nomus?”

At the argument, the TV sparked to life as a smooth voice spoke through it. 

“Tomura, it would do you good to befriend this otherworldly force. You never know when they will be a pivotal pawn in your plan.”

Not wanting to go against his mentor, Shigaraki grumbled in weak opposition before ceasing his arguing, allowing silence to fill the bar. However, sensing his student’s dissatisfaction, All For One chuckled through the screen. “Now, now, Tomura, maybe you will like someone among Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s associates. Based on what I observed from those twins, I predict that their allies will be as eccentric and unique as they are, so the possibility of a future right-hand man and close friend isn’t too far off.” 

“I don’t need any ‘friends’!”

Little did the young villain know, later he would sacrifice almost everything he had in order to have the one person who treated him with kindness all to himself.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

The slight warmth of the thin blanket enveloped Eri, and she felt as if she was safe from the tyrannical White Queen. However, the feeling was quickly stripped of her when she was the blanket was yanked off of her thin figure by one of the Queen’s maids.

“Wake up, brat! The madam is expecting you! And what are you wearing? Are you trying to make the madam look bad in front of the Queen of Life?” The maid thrusted a white blouse and shorts along with a grey jumper dress into the girl’s arms. “Here! Wear these! Once you’re dressed, go to the madam’s chambers. The white maidens will fix your appearance.” After the maid was done relaying the message, she left Eri to her own devices.

Hurriedly, the girl replaced her dirty rags for clothes with the new, nice-looking clothing. On the floor, she realized that there were some white flats waiting for her to put them on. Although she would’ve usually checked to see if there were tacks in the shoes—the maids liked to play such pranks on her when she openly disobeyed White Queen, Eri didn’t waste any time and fitted them onto her feet. Then, she briskly walked to White Queen’s chambers and knocked on the door.

“Who is it,” a snappy voice responded from the other side of the door. Eri recognized the voice from the white maiden she attacked before and slightly quivered. 

“It’s Eri,” she answered meekly, “I was told to be here.”

The white door flung open and a woman responsible for that glared at the girl with malice. As Eri thought, it was the white maiden she attacked as the scratches from her nails were still present on the side of the woman’s face. 

“What took you so long? The Queen of Life might be a very patient woman, but that isn’t an excuse for you to take your time!” The woman shoved the girl onto a chair and the rest of the white maidens surrounded her. “How hideous! No wonder the madam said we needed all hands on deck! It would take forever to fix this mess with only two of us!” One exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter! We just need to doll her up a bit. What the Queen of Life won’t know won’t hurt her.” Another said. “All of you, quiet! We can talk later!” That most likely came from the head of the white maidens.

“Yes, ma’am!”

All of the white maidens got to work on Eri’s appearance, and, once they were done, she didn’t look like the pitiful slave she used to. Instead, she looked like a pampered princess. 

“Now,” one of the white maidens instructed, “all you need to do is follow the madam to the guest room where you’ll meet the Queen of Life. But don’t get any funny ideas in her presence. If you make us look bad, all of the madam’s staff can guarantee you’ll be shipped off to a new owner. Maybe Sir Hatter will take you in. Then, he would whip you all day long for the most minute mistakes. Or, Sir Caterpillar will take you. After all, I’ve heard that he needs a new slave to test drugs on! You wouldn’t want that, would you?” Eri shook her head furiously. “Good. Now, behave.”

“Is the girl done yet? I want to be there early for my little Zuzu!”

While the white maidens smiled softly and chuckled at White Queen’s attitude, Eri just stared in shock. Never had she seen her act that intimate with someone, yet here she was, using a nickname and the word ‘my’. 

“Here she is, my Queen.”

White Queen glanced at the girl and immediately grimaced at the sight of her red eyes, but she wiped the look off her face and tightly grabbed the girl’s hand. “Perfect! Now you girls can go do what you were doing.” The white maidens nodded their heads in understanding as they left the room and went off into separate rooms of the castle. 

As White Queen practically dragged Eri with her to the guest room, a large smile was on the lady’s face, and, when they reached the door to the room, she pushed it open with excessive enthusiasm. 

“Zuzu! I’m here!”

The person in question was a teenage girl who was dressed in a slightly fancy and loose, white and gold one-shoulder dress; her wild green hair was styled in a messy lace braid, and the white flowers interwoven in her hair only made her look more elegant; star-like freckles gave her a youthful appearance; and her sincere smile made Eri feel safe in her presence.

“Callia! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you! White Rabbit—no, Walter—wouldn’t stop giving me work!”

White Queen—or was it Callia?—gave ‘Zuzu’ a wide grin before capturing her in a huge hug. 

“Oh, Zuzu! You must be so tired from that dumb rabbit’s antics!” She said soothingly.

‘Zuzu’ returned the hug and laughed. “Don’t call Walter ‘dumb’! He might be a bit clueless, but that doesn’t mean he’s dumb!” Her eyes then wandered to Eri. “Oh? Is this the new maid you hired from the Overworld, Callia?”

Callia gave Eri a subtle glare before answering, “Yes! Zuzu, this is Eri. Eri, this is Izumi, but you might know her as the Queen of Life as well as the Queen of Elsewhere. Say hi to Zuzu, Eri.”

“Oh no, she doesn’t have to greet me or anything! I don’t want to force her to do something she shouldn’t do.”

Eri stared at Izumi. _‘This is probably it,’_ she thought, _‘if I just tell her what White Queen is doing to me, she might let me go home!’_

The girl opened her mouth and a small noise answered Izumi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand that wraps up chapter six! Mad Hatter spreads some propaganda for the students of U.A, Kouichi/The Crawler finds out about the land that is beyond Elsewhere, the League of Villains make a choice, and Eri meets Izumi! What will happen next chapter? Who knows! But, what did you think of the music part? Was it good? Should I keep it in? Let me know!
> 
> Edit 4/3/2020: Soooooo guuuuuuuys, I’ve got some bad news (maybe good news, depending on how you look at it?). I may or may not be posting another story again since I had another shiny idea that I absolutely love. So, please don’t kill me ( ；∀；).


	7. The Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both sides are beginning to take big boi steps.

After making their way through towns destitute of life and buildings meant to train human slaves, Kouichi and The Gondolier approached a pristine white and silver bridge that had beautiful flowers growing out of the cracks. Above it, the sky was an entrancing mixture of greens, blues, and purples, something that clashed with the bright red and orange sky of Nowhere.

“Alright kid,” The Gondolier explained, “once we set foot on this bridge, _do not_ say anything—hell, don’t even open your mouth—and _do not_ scream or do anything of the like when you get scared.”

Haimawari stared at The Gondolier with confusion on his face and clutched onto the lucky All Might keychain he kept in his pocket. “What are you talking about? Why would I scream?”

A grim look formed on the older man’s face at the question. The teenager noticed that his arms were shaking in an emotion he couldn’t pick up on. A light breeze swept over the two, slightly lifting up the man’s cloak to reveal a small glimpse of heavily scarred skin on his legs.

“You’ll see.” 

The duo walked forward onto the bridge, and everything seemed fine until an ocean of black washed over the vigilante’s vision and he was suddenly alone in a dark area. Although, it wasn’t dark since he could still see his clothes and fingers clearly, as if there was light, but his entire surroundings were shrouded in black, like if he was in a black room. He didn’t know where he was and he was extremely tempted to ask anyone, but The Gondolier’s warning prevented him from doing so. 

In order to get an idea of his surroundings, the vigilante began to wander the darkness, feeling around for a wall. However, no matter where he touched, there wasn’t a wall or structure his fingers could latch on to. He even bent down to touch the ground, yet there was no ground. It was like he was walking on air. 

***Play Hypno K.K (Aircheck) from Animal Crossing: New Leaf or just click[here](https://youtu.be/MGMpCG6vKao)***

Light and gentle touches creeped up Kouichi’s back while he was still bent over. Following his intuition, he attacked the person that was responsible for the touching, but there was no one there. When he turned around, however, he was face-to-what-should-be-a-face with a faceless version of All Might who was squatting down to meet the vigilante’s eye level. 

In shock, Haimawari took a step back, and the faceless All Might stood up. The hero then waved his hand at the teen. Not knowing how to react, the vigilante mimicked the action with a small, awkward smile. A wide grin—or more accurately, what should’ve been a large grin—appeared on the hero’s face as the skin shifted around the cheeks to form an invisible smile. 

Then, the skin around the area where the mouth should’ve been slowly tore open, letting out a ripping sound that echoed throughout the void. Blood dripped from faceless All Might’s ‘mouth’ as more of the skin tore open. Soon, toys and figurines of All Might fell out of his mouth once the gaps became big enough. Groans from the clone of the hero started to become more frequent each time hero merchandise dropped from the orifice. Once all of the skin had been ripped apart to reveal a gaping black hole that served as a mouth, All Might made another wide grin. This time, Kouichi recognized that the smile was meant to mimic the real hero’s signature smile. A cracked and distorted voice of All Might came from the clone. 

“I...am...here.”

Suddenly, the clone dived in towards the vigilante, who barely dodged the action. The clone then stumbled and fell forward since there was no one to support him. Confirming that the faceless All Might was a threat, The Crawler ran away from the clone. Meanwhile, the hero managed to pull himself up and shambled in Haimawari’s direction.

“Here...I...am.”

No matter how far away the young vigilante got from the monster, the void would come to life and compress itself, causing the thing to get closer to him. If he tried to make a turn, the void would make sure the turn led him back to the clone. He could no longer run away from the creature as the void kept redirecting itself to make sure each movement would lead back to the faceless All Might. So, cornered and desperate, he whipped around to face the clone before running towards it and shoving his secret knife—the one he always kept on hand—into the thing’s stomach.

“Am...I...here?”

Kouichi shivered when golden goop started to form around the blade. It trickled down the clone’s legs and pooled onto the ‘ground’. With a held breath, the teen yanked the blade out from All Might’s stomach, causing more golden goop to pour out of the wound. Unexpectedly, the clone didn’t seem disturbed by the fluid. Instead, he scooped it up in his hands and guzzled it down as if he hadn’t drank anything in years. More goop started to spill from his mouth as he kept chugging large amounts of it until he began to choke. The clone coughed up the fluid in an attempt to clear his windpipe, but it didn’t help at all. In fact, it was only making the situation worse as his face was steadily turning into a purple and blue hue. And, during all of this, Haimawari only watched the faceless All Might meet his end, not making any effort to help in fear of the monster attacking him again.

***And now, you can turn your music off***

As seconds passed, the coughing became fainter and quieter until, when the clone died, it was dead silent. Shortly after, All Might melted away, leaving behind an All Might-themed music box and a vase of thirteen dandelions bundled up together with a card attached to it saying, “Make a Wish”. It was quite obvious what the latter could do, but Kouichi didn’t know what song the music box would play. So, curious as to what secrets the music box contained yet wary of the potential dangers it might have, the vigilante gingerly picked it up and tenderly wound it, causing a melody to play.

Then, everything turned white.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Currently, everyone in the cafeteria were rightfully confused. Seeking answers, they crowded around Shinsou and Bakugou as well as his friends, asking why there were clones of students and what their goal was. 

At first, Bakugou refused to answer and would snap at anyone who dared to push him past his limits. However, as more of his classmates started to press him about the issue too, his defenses began to crumble. Only Shinsou and Katsuki’s friends noticed the boy’s internal struggle between choosing to keep his dead childhood friend a secret or exposing everyone to said friend as well as the repercussions that come along with it. Either way, the group knew that someone had to get hurt, Izumi and those unfortunate to interact with Elsewhere—which was a slim chance—or the majority of the hero course.

Yet, some selfish part of the blonde saw this moment as its chance. It whispered in Bakugou’s ear, tempting him to reveal the truth, because who cared about those extras? All that mattered was Izumi, and it wouldn’t matter if half of his classmates died. As long as he and Izumi were able to be together after this, everyone in U.A could be tortured for all he cared.

Katsuki opened his mouth, ready to spill the truth, until someone in an All Might-themed outfit and bike gear came crashing in the center of the commotion. Along with the person, a [song](https://youtu.be/Xwbggo_VgL0) that was playing resonated within all of the students, despite the fact that a very small amount of people knew the truth.

Visions of a green headed girl who looked a bit younger than them materialized in their head. She was dressed in an expensive, fancy outfit, one meant for a queen, as she stared off into space. The moon shined particularly bright too, casting a dim white light over everything.

_“Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars.”_

Then, a loud crash noise brought an end to everyone’s vision. When Katsuki looked down, he realized that Todoroki crushed it under his foot, but he didn’t care much about it. Instead, he was preoccupied with the fact that he was able to see Izumi again. Although, his attitude quickly changed when Todoroki lifted his foot to reveal a broken All Might music box, one extremely familiar to Katsuki.

_“I heard that you were having nightmares from the Old Hag, so here you go!”_

_“An All Might music box! I’ve always wanted one of these, but they’re always sold out! Thank you so much, Kacchan! This is the best birthday present ever!”_

_“It better be!”_

Suddenly, the rage and loss that he never knew still existed consumed Bakugou as he tackled Shouto. The last thing of Izumi he could ever have was gone, and it was because he was too focused on what was in front of him. But, even though he knew it was his fault, Katsuki couldn’t help but want Todoroki to feel that pain. Maybe it was because he destroyed it in the blink of an eye, not even questioning who the girl was, or maybe it was because he was the son of a hero, people Izumi loved above all else.

“You bastard,” the blonde shouted, still very much emotional, “do you even know what you fucking destroyed?”

The boy only stared back in shock at the blonde, not being able to answer due to the rare sight of him almost crying.

“That was ‘Zumi’s birthday present for her 4th birthday, you asswipe! Her present for the day she got her quirk!” The tears that threatened to spill over finally did so as they fell onto the floor. Those that knew Bakugou were stunned by the scene. Katsuki _never_ displayed his true emotions, preferring to keep them shrouded by anger, yet now he was crying over the destruction of a music box of a person they don’t even know about. “Goddamnit! You just destroyed what would most likely be the only memorabilia I’ll ever get back of her!” He then raised his fist up, preparing to punch the other in the face. However, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero sprung into action and held Katsuki back.

“Bakubro, you need to calm down,” Kirishima said. “Hurting Todoroki will do nothing to restore Izumi’s music box or bring her back, so calm down, okay? You’re only hurting yourself.”

The blonde thrashed around in his friends’ grip as he shouted, “Let me go, Shitty Hair! That Half n’ Half motherfucker needs to pay!”

Sero sighed as he wrapped Bakugou in his tape while Ashido wiped his tears off with a tissue that was created by Yaoyorozu, who was very confused and uncomfortable with the situation. “Bakugou. I’m pretty sure Todoroki didn’t mean to crush Izumi’s present. He was probably surprised by the sudden vision he just saw. Plus, he also saw what was basically an evil clone of himself.”

Despite all of the effort his friends were putting in to calm him down, the combination of rage and sorrow compelled Katsuki to make the half-fire-half-ice quirk user pay for what he’d done, but, before he could, a groan came from the stranger that everyone ignored in favor of observing the drama that was occurring between two of the best fighters in 1-A. 

Said stranger pushed himself up and grabbed a nearby table for support as he held his head in his hand.

“Can guys _please_ quiet down? I feel a bit disoriented.”

This time, Shinsou took it upon himself to ask questions. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

The stranger—who sounded slightly older than them, Shinsou noticed—grumbled as he sat down on a table with a vase of dandelions in hand, ignoring Hitoshi’s question. 

“‘Make a Wish,’ it says. As much as I’d want to, I don’t think my wish will come out the way I want it to. _Especially,_ because it’s from Elsewhere, or was it Nowhere?”

As soon as he finished his statement, all the students in the room snapped their attention to the stranger and started bombarding him with questions about Elsewhere, mainly about if the rumor was true. 

“Only very few parts of that rumor is true, unfortunately.”

Katsuki shook himself out of his friends’ grasp and confronted the person before going on his knees and pressing his hands together even though a large piece of his mind screamed at him for lowering himself in front of all of these extras. “Can you please tell us more about Elsewhere,” he pleaded, “I want to save my friend, and I need all the information I can get.”

The stranger examined the blonde and asked, “Tell me who you are, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Then, Katsuki didn’t hesitate to explain his and Izumi’s backstory, mentioning little details that he didn’t tell his friends at first. With each word spoken about the past, a peculiar combination of hope and grief welled up in his heart, but he did his best to ignore the feeling and kept explaining his connection—albeit a very strained connection—with the other dimension as a whole. Meanwhile, those that were watching had various expressions of disgust, anger, and sorrow as they heard the gruesome tale about the ruler of Elsewhere. Although they haven’t met Izumi in person or heard of her until now, emotions rushed through them, telling them to aid in avenging her. But, with every circumstance, there were people who didn’t really care about the greenette, and some were bold enough to vocal this fact to their friends. In response, their friends would either tell them to shut up or would tell them how much of a danger Elsewhere was. After that, some of the people who didn’t care started to pay more attention but for different reasons.

Once the boy finished his clarification, the person nodded and began to talk about the sights he saw in Nowhere, stating that he wasn’t able to get to Elsewhere yet. From his motives to going to Elsewhere to the death of the All Might monster clone, he explicitly described each of the events he experienced before he was sent back to the Overworld, making sure to line the descriptions with warnings in order to ward off anyone who was naive enough to go to Elsewhere unprepared. Of course, many students still asked questions about the validity of the online post about the other universe, and he answered each of them, proving the majority of it to be false. When raised with the question of _who_ posted the rumor, a hum came from him with the reply of, “I don’t know, but it would most likely come from one of the head honchos’ minions.”

Afterwards, several discussions were held about the situation. Everyone wanted to save Izumi—who was apparently still alive, according to The Gondolier—but not many people were strong enough to face the dangers that came with traversing Nowhere or Elsewhere. From there, arguments starting popping up, debating which class—or classes—should go to the alternate world. However, with the conclusion of that topic, a new one appeared: What can the people staying in the Overworld do to help?

Queries after quieres kept arising with each answer received until a full-fledged Plan ‘A’, Plan ‘B’, working schedule, and job schedule was made. With the completion of those items, all the students went their own separate ways, ready to train themselves for the events to come. Meanwhile, the stranger was taken by Shinsou and Bakugou for interrogation.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“My name is...Eri.”

There was a long pause in the air, and Eri started to fiddle with the hem of her dress. Although Callia wouldn’t punish her in front of Izumi, she knew that the woman would make sure that she received more than enough pain to make up for her mistake.

A wobbly smile formed on the greenette’s face before she announced, “She’s so cute!” Izumi moved towards Eri and crouched down in order to be face-to-face with the girl. 

“Do you like toys, Eri-chan?” Callia grimaced at the nickname, but Eri slowly nodded. In response, Izumi flashed her a big smile and held out a plush white fawn with arctic-blue snowflake patterns littering its body and lilac purple eyes. “What do you want their name to be?”

The child stared at the plush deer before timidly answering with, “Yukiko. I think I want her name to be Yukiko.”

With a bright smile that could rival the Sun, the Queen nodded her head and used her quirk while tapping the deer on the nose.

“Good evening,” she started, her quirk powering her words and thoughts with life. “Welcome to the world, Yukiko. It’ll be a bit difficult to adjust to suddenly gaining life, but I think you’ll be able to triumph over it all. Now, your purpose is to be Eri’s friend, not her butler. When she is down, you should be there for her, and, when she’s in danger, you should be there to save her. However, that doesn’t mean you sacrifice your life in the process. If possible, find a way to save her without either of you getting hurt. As for your power, I bestow upon you a quirk, one for creating and manipulating ice. I call it ‘Jack Frost’, but you change the name if you wish. For the forms you can transform into, I’ll grant you the ability to turn into a deer that’ll look the exact same as your plush form, a child, a woman—both middle-aged and old, and a snowman.” Then, the Queen tapped the deer’s nose again. “That is all. Enjoy your new life, Yukiko.”

Soon after the greenette finished, the deer gracefully jumped out of her arms and morphed into a middle-aged woman with lilac purple eyes and snow white hair that had irremovable arctic blue snowflakes sprinkled within it. The deer, now named Yukiko, then elegantly walked towards Eri and smiled softly. 

“Hello, Eri. What do you want to play?”

Shock overtook Eri as she saw the toy turn into a human, but, once she shook herself out of it, she thought about her question. As much as she wanted to play with her newfound friend, she was scared that White Queen would punish her for leaving without permission, so she glanced at the woman, asking for tacit consent. Fortunately, seeing as she was in front of Izumi, the woman didn’t dare to hold the child back and nodded her head in agreement, allowing the child and the new Elsewhere citizen to leave the room.

Now alone with Izumi, Callia started to get to business. 

“Izumi, dear, the reason I called you here is because I, as well as the rest of the Council, need to ask something of you.”

Attention shifting to Callia, the Queen of Life replied with, “Yes? What is it?”

“You see, we were wondering if you could give us quirks of our own to use; quirks unique to our personality, preferably powerful ones.” The greenette tilted her head in confusion.

“Why? Aren’t your guards enough? I’m pretty sure I gave them powerful quirks so that they could protect you.”

“Well, yes, they’re enough, but what if they’re compromised or caught off guard? Then, we’ll have to face the threat without any abilities of our own. And, while we may have certain skills that make up for the power, who’s to say that the threat will have a quirk that will prevent us from using those skills?”

Swayed by the evidence, Izumi hummed in thought. “You’re not wrong about that, but you do know it’ll be extremely painful for you all, right? Tampering with one’s life force isn’t an easy thing to do, nor is it painless. Plus, you guys are not like the others where their force is their entire bodies. Instead, your forces lie in those marbles I gave you guys from the beginning, considering that you all existed prior to the Plush Era. So, you guys might risk loosing your life forces. In addition, the process will take a while since it drains a large amount of my energy to alter forces. Are you guys sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.” To which the Queen of Life closed her eyes in conclusion. “Alright, I’ll give you quirks.”

A large, crooked grin formed on White Queen’s face at the thought of receiving a quirk that would finally allow her to grind Katsuki under her white heels. For far too long, she would have to remain in Elsewhere, watching the blonde attempt to cut her off from her precious Zuzu. But now, she’ll be able to put the boy in his place. Images of the teen in one of the brothels that were scattered among the cities in Nowhere, sniveling as he would have to “work” just to make sure he wouldn’t starve the very next day developed emotions of euphoria within White Queen’s frozen heart. Not long after those visions faded away, other visions of the pathetic “Bakusquad” being scourged in various slave housed materialized in her mind, only making the crooked grin grow larger. Although, Izumi would never get to see it due to the fact that Callia covered her mouth with her hand.

“Thank you, Zuzu. You don’t know how much it means to us for you to do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand that’s a wrap! Hope you all enjoyed chapter 7 ‘cause I certainly did (mainly for the beginning where The Gondolier was slightly warming up to The Crawler)!
> 
> On a bit more serious note, there might be a bit of change in grammar in upcoming chapters, in both this fic and others. This is because I am planning to become a little more lenient with the grammar. These changes aren’t extremely major, but I’m pointing it out because sometimes there might be an inconsistency since it’s not really easy for me to break out of my old methods. The reason why I’m doing this is because, when I go over my stories, they’re a bit too professional and uptight for my taste. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that I don’t think it doesn’t fit.
> 
> The very few changes will include:
> 
> -Stretched out sounds(???). Ex: “Hey! Wait for me!” to “Heeeeeeeeeey! Wait for me!”
> 
> -A bit more repetitiveness in word choice
> 
> -Dialogue on the same ‘line’. Ex: 
> 
> “I’ll take a triple bossy patty deluxe, on a raft, four by four animal style, extra shingles with a shimmy and squeeze, light axel grease, make it cry, burn it, and let it swim.”
> 
> “We serve food here, sir.”
> 
> To:
> 
> “I’ll take a triple bossy patty deluxe...” “We serve food here, sir.”
> 
> -A teensy weensy bit of chatfic; like 3.25%
> 
> And that’s really all the changes for now! Thanks for reading this note, and I hope you have a great midnight/day/afternoon/night!


	8. A Colorful, Decorated, and Cracking Shell

Once she arrived at her palace after her visit from ~~White Queen~~ Callia, Izumi took a deep breath as she entered her room. Instead of the usual sunset and two cherry blossom trees, the entire room was a swirling storm of black clouds and a cacophony of wails and sobbing echoed throughout the room. The ground was no longer water, but a tarry substance that stuck to her feet. Somehow, the scent of unfulfilled dreams and hollowness filled the room and agitated the Queen. Then, the clouds parted to reveal a soft, dull, blue couch and an older, green-haired woman that looked similar to Izumi sitting down on a pink stool.

With a sigh, the Queen walked to the couch and flung herself onto it, and the woman stared at her with a warm and sweet smile. “Hello, sweetie, what brings you here today? It’s been so long since you summoned me here.”

For some reason, the younger greenette couldn’t help but open up to the stranger next to her and spill the thoughts that weighed down her heart. She didn’t know how, but something within her chest told her that the woman was someone to be trusted. Although, something within her also said that this wasn’t the _right_ woman, that it was a fake, a plush. However, Izumi never made a plush like that before.

Then, the room stripped Izumi of the human form she adapted after she woke up in Elsewhere as it always did when she entered it, revealing a 3D silhouette of Izumi composed of green spirit energy with a huge, gaping, heart-shaped hole in the center of her chest. The hole then started to fill itself up with golden goop, but, without fail, the goop, along with little toy figurines ~~of All Might~~ , always spilled out of the hole.

“I don’t know,” Izumi admitted, “I thought I got rid of the emptiness a long time ago. What could’ve possibly triggered the emptiness to flare up again after all these years?”

“May I ask what this emptiness is? It’ll be much easier to help you if I knew a bit more of your condition.”

When Izumi opened her “mouth” to respond, sticky red fluid started to drip from Izumi’s mouth and mixed with the golden goop that was coming from the heart-shape hollow, creating an extremely sticky yet shiny orange slime. The spirit suddenly remembered that the slime was called “Cacoethes” by Caterpillar. He said that ingesting the mixture was dangerous for anyone who wasn’t Izumi, yet, apparently, it was in high demand so substitutes of the mixture were made. Although, those substitutes were significantly weaker than Cacoethes, according to Caterpillar.

“Honey?”

Ah. She blanked out again, didn’t she? Well, it wasn’t any good to keep ~~her mother~~ the woman waiting. She quickly bottled up the Cacoethes and sent it to Kinori, one of Caterpillar citizen’s, and turned to the woman to tell her problems.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

There were very few things in the world that made Naomasa question himself due to the fact that he’s seen many things in his line of work, but the thing in front of him...it made him question everything he knew about his entire sanity.

The thing was brought by a man he recognized as the ex-villain Stain, who now goes by The Gondolier. The man looked as if Satan was after him and literally begged at the detective’s feet to help him. Of course, Naomasa agreed to help him, but Chizome had to answer a few questions, something he had no qualms about. 

During the interrogation, Stain spilled everything that happened to him and the existence of two entirely different worlds called Elsewhere and Nowhere. When asked if the viral post online was true, the man said it was completely false, and he told Tsukauchi about the terrors the supposed “perfect world” hid behind colorful toys and cheerful smiles, including the brainwashing of the dead Midoriya Izumi. Although, the strangest thing about the whole interrogation was the fact that The Gondolier had no hesitation of telling the truth, yet he never came to the police with this important information. So, like any good detective, Tsukauchi asked him about his motives, and what the man said in return scared the man.

_**“Believe me, I didn’t tell anyone for a reason. When I was ‘assigned’ this title by that White Rabbit bastard, I immediately turned to an old friend of mine for help. You want to know what happened to him? He was fed to the Blights; yeah that faceless All Might was only one Blight of the many. What made it worse was that I was forced to watch as a Vlad King and Endeavor Blight skinned and flambéed him alive. Those guys in Elsewhere don’t fuck around. Don’t believe me? Ask one of the poor citizens those fake heroes failed to save. I’m pretty sure the bridled prostitutes and weary slaves can vouch for that fact. The only reason why I’m coming to you guys is because the brat that defeated the Blight just destroyed a seal on Elsewhere and, by extension, Izumi’s suppressed memories. As a result, you all in the Overworld are going to see some fucked up shit here and there. One of those fucked up things is what I call a ‘Moss Maniac’. They’re not hard to find—hell, I brought one with me right now—since they’re humans covered in Dream Moss. What’s Dream Moss, you ask? It’s a moss in Elsewhere that feeds off of unfulfilled dreams. If ingested by an Overworldian, like you all, they’ll experience hallucinations of their most desired dreams being fulfilled and will get addicted to it. Since one of the seals are broken, Dream Moss is going to start growing rampant in poorer areas of the city, and you bet your ass that people will flock to that shit. These Moss Maniacs are relatively harmless in comparison to the other creatures you’ll eventually see, but they are still pretty dangerous as they will go around breaking into property and hurting people just to get their hands on the stuff. As to why I know these things, let’s just say that I’m not the first Gondolier that experienced this. Ah, but don’t worry about this being permanent. It’ll all end once the Overworld reaches a state of homeostasis with the other worlds.”** _

After hearing that info, the detective felt understandably conflicted about what the breaking of the seals meant. Sure, Midoriya will recover her memories but is releasing otherworldly creatures upon their world worth that? Despite the fact that the creatures would eventually stop coming, it still meant that they would come into their world. 

“Diane...we’ll...together...finally...love...you.”

Ah, the Moss Maniac. Naomasa turned to the creature and stared it.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, they were able to identify the person as Yuuotto Rosuai. According to his family, the man was in love with an American woman named Diane Lawrence, but her family weren’t keen to see a foreigner in the family. As a result, they were forbidden from even _meeting_ each other. Just today, Yuuotto discovered Diane had married another man and couldn’t handle such information. By some form of bad luck, Dream Moss grew in his kitchen because of it. Now, he was covered in multicolored moss from head to toe with his mouth being the only area where the moss wasn’t growing. 

Naomasa sighed as he pulled a picture of Bakugou Katsuki with a green circle drawn on his face and another picture of a man with curly, black hair and freckles with a green circle drawn on his face as well.

“Just how deep does this rabbit hole go?”

Then, the detective glanced at Rosuai. “Hopefully not too deep to the point where we can’t get out.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Katsuki glared at Kouichi while Hitoshi eyed him warily. Said vigilante’s eyes darted from item to item in the 1-A classroom. 

“So,” Bakugou started, “you were able to go to Elsewhere, right?” That stopped the vigilante from examining the room, causing him to stare at the blonde as if he was stupid.

“Yeah, wasn’t that what the whole talk in the cafeteria was about?”

He ignored the response and stated, “If you were able to go to Elsewhere, then you obviously were able to meet The Gondolier.” Haimawari kept staring at the blonde with disbelief as he mentally wondered how someone that dumb get into the hero course.

Shinsou sighed. “Basically, he’s saying for you to bring us to The Gondolier.” 

“What? No!” The Crawler shook his head furiously. “I’m not bringing anyone to The Gondolier!” Bakugou clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Well it’s too late, extra, everyone in this school already made plans for ‘Zumi’s rescue—you’d think you’d already know that since you saw and _helped_ plan, but I guess you can’t stop stupid, and you can’t stop that. Fuck, if you don’t tell us, we’ll just find him on our own. It’s not like it’ll be easy to find one man when you have the majority of U.A searching for him.” 

Seeing Katsuki’s point, Kouichi completely gave in. “What do you want?” Hitoshi raised his eyebrow in confusion.

“Didn’t we already tell you? We just want you to guide us to The Gondolier.” 

“Fine, I’ll do it, but I’m not going to let kids like you do it alone. If I’m bringing you to him, I’m coming along with you guys to save the Queen.”

There was a silence of consideration before Bakugou and Shinsou nodded in unison.

“Deal.”

From there, the three of them predicted where The Gondolier would appear next while also learning about what resources the other had just in case the need to use them arises.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Adonis—no, it was Hisashi. Adonis wasn’t a father—snarled at the voice on the other side of the payphone.

“We had a _deal_ , you son of a bitch! Give me back my daughter right now!”

The smooth, masculine voice on the other side sounded equally as angry, but not for the same reason as Hisashi. In the distance, Hisashi could hear the cries and yelps of people begging for forgiveness. 

“She’s not _your_ daughter, you fraud. She became mine when you abandoned her!” A particularly loud cry for help interrupted the call. “Shut your goddamn mouth, Neitoma, before I shove hot charcoals down your throat!” Immediately, the cry was silenced and faint whimpers of fear were heard. The implied action of what the other man was doing enraged Hisashi.

“Are you abusing my daughter, you sick fuck?!” 

His assumption made the other man extremely angry as he shouted back, “I would never abuse _my own daughter!_ She is everything to me and means nothing to you! My daughter is my life, my light, my beacon of hope, and I won’t let you take that from me! Unlike you, my associates and I strive to give her everything her heart desires! You don’t need her like I need her, and you never will!” Shortly after, the call was ended.

Just like that, the suave, handsome persona Hisashi worked hard to build that he named “Adonis” collapsed once the call was over. Fat tears hit the ground as the man fell to his knees. With a wobbly breath, he pulled out a tattered keychain of a green chibi dragon and held it close to his chest as he sobbed. Strangely enough, but expected by the man, the dragon moved its arms in order to give Hisashi a hug.

***Please play “Heartache” by Seycara or click here***

_It was a joyful day in the Midoriya household as the only daughter ran around the living room, using her newfound quirk to give life to everything around her. The warm aroma of katsudon and fresh scent of the grass outside drifted in the air and gave Hisashi the feeling of fulfillment while he walked over to his wife to give her a kiss._

_“Seems like our little green bean already got her quirk,” he said with content as he stared at his daughter. Inko giggled at the image of her dancing around with the All Might figure she accidentally brought to life. “She definitely did.”_

_Once she heard her father, Izumi ran over to him and showed him the now-living All Might figure who waved his hand._

_“Papa! Look! I got my quirk! Now I can have All Might with me all the time! Can we see Kacchan later so I can show him my quirk?” She stared at him with a billion stars in her eyes which made Hisashi chuckle._

_“That’s right, green bean! But, why don’t we eat breakfast first? Also, while we’re at it, why don’t you tell Papa what your quirk does?”_

_After that, his daughter rambled on about what she knew about her new power and the potential abilities it could have in the future until Inko came into the living room to tell them that breakfast was done._

_The man got up from the couch, ready to go eat, but he felt Izumi tugging on his pants. Turning around, he saw her look at the ground and holding something gently in her hand. He crouched down to her level. “What’s wrong, green bean?”_

_He was answered with an incoherent wave of muttering, but then she handed him a green dragon keychain._

_“I wanted to give this to you,” she murmured in embarrassment, “Mama said it that you would like it if I gave you something to com-men-orate my quirk. His name is Oukiishinzou, and he can breathe fire like you but it’s weaker since Mama said he shouldn’t hurt people.”_

_Hisashi stared at his hand where the dragon waddled around in circles, occasionally tripped and falling, causing it to release the smallest and weakest of flames from its mouth. A warm smile formed on his face._

_“I love it, green bean.”_

_The response made the girl smile brightly as she ran into the kitchen to tell her mother about how her present made her father happy. When he entered the kitchen, he saw the heartwarming image of his green bean and lovely wife laugh as the sunlight wrapped them in an ethereal veil, giving them an air of youth._

A scream left the man as he released all of the sadness he bottled up for years. Tears filled with resentment, grief, anger, fear, and guilt trickled down his cheeks as he clutched the keychain like it would vanish if he let go of it. Meanwhile, a feeling of warmth blossomed in his chest, indicating that Oukiishinzou was using his fire.

There was a moment of silence between the two until Hisashi pulled the keychain away from his chest as he cupped it with one hand and stroked it with the other. 

“If I want to fix this, I can’t do it alone.” Oukiishinzou nodded in confirmation. 

“I’m going to have to meet Inko again.” 

***End music***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeeelllllllooooooooooo everyone! This chapter in, we get to see the consequences of faceless All Might’s death, an explanation of what he was, the start of an alliance between the heroes and The Crawler, and Dadsashi (Dadzashi will be coming soon!) content! 
> 
> However that only brings up more questions, what will happen when more Blights are defeated? What are the other “fucked up” things that’ll appear in the Overworld? Will it ever be the same again? Will U.A’s plan work? All of that may or may not be answered in the next chapter! 
> 
> Also, if you all haven’t noticed, I did, in fact, make two more stories! Why? Because I simply had an idea! So far, my editor for one of my old stories, Redstroyer3, didn’t know about this until now. Now, Redstroyer3 is big mad at me (although I actually don’t know the reason _why_ ; I only know how (￣^￣)). In other words, I absolutely cannot restrain myself from making new stories!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all liked this chapter along with the Dadsashi content! 
> 
> P.S: For all you shippers—mainly BakuDeku, TodoDeku, and ShinDeku—out there, the next chapter is going to be filled with tons of fanservice containing a few ships! Although, this is really supposed to be a logical ruse to make sure you all don’t guess what the endgame ship is. Hey, I’m just being honest! Oh, but for those who don’t like filler, don’t worry, there’ll be plots and—who knows—there might also be hints that can unlock future mysteries?


	9. A Fake Connection and a Real One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gave the chapter a few edits on 5/27/20!

After school was over and he finished chatting with the self-proclaimed Bakusquad, Bakugou let out a sigh as he walked into his room and threw himself on his bed. Despite how tired he was feeling, he couldn’t help but feel overjoyed at the fact that he was finally making progress. For years, he tried to plan strategies on how to get to Elsewhere and save Izumi, but without any information to go off of, the plans could never be completed. Now, however, he had help, he had his... _friends_ to help him. 

Excitement rushed through his veins at the thought of finally being able to meet his childhood friend after so many years. His mind thought up of various images of them being a hero duo, saving the day and upholding peace like All Might did. 

With a small smile, he stared out of his window to see the full moon that shown brightly and gave his room a soft white hue. Eventually, the moon lulled him to sleep.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Todoroki sat on his bed and examined the broken pieces of the All Might music box. He had never seen Bakugou so enraged. Sure, he’s seen him be angry before, but Shouto knew that was an act, a front. This was the first time he’d seen the blonde truly angry. 

He observed the small pieces of the box. “Why are you so special to him?” Then, as if the box heard him, a weak voice came from the parts. 

_“Kac...chan. Pa...pa. Ma...ma. I want to go...home.”_

Immediately after, the music box began to play [music](https://youtu.be/nRr8PMiDiVA) despite it being broken. The soft notes echoed in his empty room and broke the eternal stiff silence in his house. It didn’t make sense as to how it still functioned correctly, but Shouto didn’t think too much about it since his day was already filled with weird things. So, he just let himself indulge in the music. Although, he didn’t know when he started talking to the parts.

“You know, your friend, Bakugou, is really weird. He always looks angry, but he’s never really angry. Nowadays, though, it seems he’s expressing more emotions because of his friends.” Todoroki tried not to remember Iida, Uraraka, and Asui attempting to talk to him. “I wonder what’s it’s like to have friends you can show your true self to. Growing up, I never had real friends because my father would always make me train in order to beat All Might, and for the few people I met on a daily basis, they only wanted to be my friend because I was the son of the Number Two Pro Hero.” The music slowly quieted down as if the box was listening to him. “I wish people saw me for who I am, not what I am. I don’t want people trying to befriend me because they want something from me. I want people I can talk and share my feelings to. Why can’t I have that?” Iida, Uraraka, and Asui’s faces flashed in his thoughts. “Well, there’s them, but I don’t know if they’re genuine about being my friends. What if they’re like everyone else? I mean, we’re in a hero school. People can always lie and hide their true intentions. You get what I’m saying?”

The music box didn’t respond, and Shouto let out a dry laugh. 

“Why am I even talking to a music box? It’s not like it can talk back.” 

At the comment, something came out of the box and pinched the teen. The music it was playing stopped and was replaced with [another one](https://youtu.be/YjoJB0b-tpU). Unlike the previous one, this song wasn’t filled with longing and sadness. Instead, it was filled with hopefulness, optimism, and acceptance. Another weak voice came from the parts, but this time it felt stronger, like the person that was speaking was actually there, not of a recording of them.

_“Shoucchan...trust...them. They’re...good...people.”_

He gave the box a skeptical stare. “How would you know? You’ve never met them.”

 _“I’m...always...with...Kac...chan. So...I...can...see...them.”_ The revelation of the box surprised Shouto. So far, Katsuki has been acting as if she was truly gone, so he guessed that he wasn’t aware that the spirit of the box was with him somehow. Although, he quickly found out how since he questioned the box about it shortly after. 

_“He’s...always...calling me...in his...mind....so...I have...access to all of his...thoughts...and...memories. He feels...guilty...about what happened...to me.”_

“So if you have access to his thoughts and memories, then you know the truth of Elsewhere.”

_“Mm...hm.”_

“Are you trying to escape right now?”

_“Can’t. Only...a...small voice...in...Izumi’s head. Need to...destroy more...of the Blights...for...my influence...to become...stronger.”_

At the fact that the box referred to Izumi in the third person, Shouto tilted his head in confusion. “‘Izumi’? Aren’t you Izumi?”

_“Somewhat...I’m...a Fragment...of...her. If you’re lucky...or unlucky......you’ll find...another Blight...soon. He...contains another Fragment.”_

“When?”

_“You’ll find...out.”_

Then, the music box went silent, and Shouto was once again alone in his room. With a sigh, he set the broken box on his nightstand and went to sleep, knowing that keeping himself awake over this wouldn’t do him any good. 

However, as he went to sleep, he wondered how Izumi was truly like if a Fragment of her was that kind to him.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Shinsou stared at the roof of his room. Right beside him was a vase of twelve dandelions—he was planning to burn them all tomorrow since, when The Crawler used one of them to see if it would make a wish, it resulted in a deformed and mangled dog—that swayed gently in the breeze that was coming into his room from the opened window along with a folded map of Nowhere that had little notes scribbled here and there.

Many people would question why he was so invested in a stranger’s rescue. Sure, any normal person would try to save anyone, but they’re wouldn’t try that hard to save someone they barely even knew. However, to Hitoshi himself, the answer was obvious.

He knew what it was like to be taken advantage of, to have your trust ripped to shreds. His old classmates and former parents would do that to him just because he had a “villain’s quirk”, so hearing another person have that happen to them made his blood boil. Although, what made it worse was that Izumi was none the wiser to her “friend’s” betrayal due to the Council’s brainwashing. And while the intended outcomes of both of their situations were completely different, it didn’t change the fact that the Council tricked and took advantage of her. 

Plus, he had his own curiosities about her that he wanted to satisfy. 

According to Bakugou, the greenette was one of the most heroic and nicest person he’d ever met. From helping the elderly cross roads to getting punched by an older kid to stop him from bullying one of her classmates, every heroic act she could do, she’d do it. Additionally, she was never one to discriminate. She would always go out of her way to befriend kids with mutation quirks or villainous quirks to literal villains on the streets just because she thought ‘Everyone needs a chance to be happy, no matter who they are’. 

Call Shinsou cynical, but that type of kindness didn’t exist. Not even All Might, the best pro hero in Japan, was that kind, so how could a child with a strong quirk that messed with life and death be that nice?

Of course, he would never be able to find out because she’s not in their world, but once they save her, he’ll see for himself how much of a “true hero” she is.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

***Please play Rush Garcia’s Orchestration of “Hot Milk” or click[here](https://youtu.be/GFfVMKc69jI)!***

When he opened his eyes, Bakugou found himself in front of Izumi, who was happily eating a heart-shaped sugar cookie along with some milk. The sight of her made Bakugou flush. 

Despite the fact that she was in a completely separate world, she seemed to age like she was still in the Overworld. However, she was still as adorable and beautiful as ever. Her messy green hair was nicely tied up in a ponytail with a baby blue ribbon, and it paired well with her pastel purple, ~~completely cute,~~ oversized sweater and midnight black leggings as well as her fuzzy caramel brown boots. Big, sparkly green eyes filled with life and the multitude of freckles dotted on her cheeks enhanced her cute innocent look. The fluffy blanket she wrapped in didn’t help either. 

“These cookies are great, Kacchan! And the place you chose is so beautiful!” She exclaimed, causing the blonde to see what she was talking about and observe his surroundings. 

They were on the top of a lush, green hill which gave them the perfect view of the sunset and valleys below them. Overhead there was a willow tree whose leaves were long enough to give the view a curtain-like look, but short enough to not cover the sunset. Between the two of them, there was a coffee table that was lined with cookies and brownies that Katsuki apparently made as well as cups of milk, and both him and Izumi were dressed in comfy clothes and were wrapped in fluffy blankets. Additionally, the two of them were sitting on soft pillows that felt like clouds. Surrounding them was the scent of fresh grass and softwood mixed with cinnamon and sound of the gentle breeze. 

“Kacchan? What’s wrong?”

Bakugou was brought out of his thoughts and stared at Izumi. “Oh no, nothing. I was just admiring the view.” A smile formed on his face. “You’re extremely gorgeous, you know that?”

The greenette turned bright red at the compliment and took another bite of the sugar cookie. “You’re just saying that!” Katsuki chuckled again her shy response.

“No,” he replied, “I mean it. You’re that irresistible.”

Midoriya flushed more and turned to head to look at the sunset instead of him, muttering under her breath about how he wasn’t being fair. 

The two of them were quiet for a while, gazing at the provided view from the hill, until Izumi said, “Kacchan, do you love me?” The sudden question caused Katsuki to choke on air and whip around to be face-to-face with the greenette. 

“What do you mean,” he asked. She curled into herself a bit before responding.

“It’s just that...we’ve been together for so long, and recently, I’ve been wanting to become more than friends. You’re so nice and brave and strong and I know you don’t deserve me, but I really want to...I don’t know. I don't think I want to be friends anymore because you mean so much more to me.” Tears began to form in her eyes as her voice became more wobbly. “I’m sorry! I know you’re in a completely different league than I am, but I can’t help it! I’m so so so sorry!” She then started to cry after her confession, and Bakugou got up from his pillow to go to her side and comfort her. 

Lost emotions from the past surfaced in his chest as he revealed his own emotions. “It’s okay, you don’t have to feel sad because...I love you too.”

At his response, she looked at him with a hopeful stare. “Really?” He gave her a warm smile. “Really.” 

A watery grin formed on her face as he hugged the blonde tightly, small sobs making her small figure tremble somewhat. 

The two remained in their hug for a few minutes before an urge in Katsuki’s chest made him pull her off. Once she was pried from his side, he gently cupped her cheek, lightly tilting her face towards his while parting her lips slightly with his calloused thumb, and closed the gap between them.

To Katsuki, he wished the moment could last forever as he luxuriated in the feeling of his childhood sweetheart’s soft lips against his rough ones. Everything around the new couple faded away to the increasing warmth between the two of them. Gentle breezes became mute in the presence of the faint gasps Izumi was making. His fingers only felt the now-pliable body of his crush as she eventually moved closer to him to return the kiss. 

All was perfect in that moment; all was well. But that quickly changed when the sound of a phone ringing echoed throughout his dream.

***End music***

Suddenly, Bakugou was ripped out of that dream, and he woke up in his room. However, he failed to notice the small crack in the willow tree’s bark that shone with a bright light.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Todoroki and Shinsou opened their eyes to see a girl in front of them who they assumed was supposed to be Izumi, but her face was blanked out and there were no defining features other than her green hair and expensive dress. Additionally, she didn’t do anything but sit down as if she was awaiting orders.

On their laps they saw a pair of All Might-themed glasses. They gave each other a stare, tacitly discussing about whether or not they should wear them or not before their curiosity got the best of them and both put them on. Through the lenses of the glasses, they saw that a dark silhouette of the faceless Izumi along with the bright outline of three doors with only two of them being unlocked. 

After they—once again—tacitly discussed about what they would do next, the two teens reached out to an individual door and opened it. 

Immediately, a flash of light burst out of the doors and small orbs of green energy flew out of them and up to the “sky”. After their release, the energy swirled around each other in some sort of dance before fusing together to form a short figure made up of energy. The figure then descended and their light slowly dimmed to reveal Midoriya Izumi. 

The boys saw Izumi let out a sigh of relief as she slowly opened her eyes to reveal bright emerald-green irises. Once her eyes were completely opened and she saw Shouto and Shinsou, an excited grin formed on her face.

***Please play Seychara’s Ghibli Orchestra of “Crazy Milk” or click[here](https://youtu.be/ei6KXCC8iYU)!***

She didn’t even wait for them to react as she lunged forward and gave the two of them a hug. 

“It really is you guys! I thought that tugging sensation towards the Overworld was just me! You two have _no idea_ how I’ve always wanted to see U.A students in person! Cheshire has told me soooo much about you all!”

With their minds trying to comprehend what was going on, their mouths opened habitually and were about to introduce themselves until the greenette shushed them with a particularly harsh jab to their mouths with both of her fingers. 

“You don’t need to waste your breath! I already know who both of you are, Todoroki Shouto and Shinsou Hitoshi! Cheshire really likes you two since you guys aren’t open books to him! Besides, I’d rather you use your breath for something more fun!” Suddenly, a portal to a bright morning sky filled with balloons, bubbles, confetti, and shooting stars appeared, and she quickly grabbed the purplette and the half-red-half-white-haired boy’s hands and dragged them along with her as she jumped into the portal. 

By the time the two teens were mentally present, they were already falling from a sky at high speeds, shouting in fear and forgetting to use their quirks. Meanwhile, Izumi was slowly floating downwards since she grabbed onto a balloon that was in the shape of an Alaskan Malamute mixed with a Labrador Retriever. At the sight of the their shouting, she giggled and guided bubbles to catch them, causing them to bounce up and down like they were on a transparent trampoline. 

This gave Todoroki and Shinsou enough time to calm down, but once they did, the bubbles popped shortly after. Now aware of the fact that the balloons could slow their fall, the two of them tried to grasp the strings of any nearby balloons, yet they kept drifting out of their reach. When they realized that the greenette above them was the cause behind it, they sent a glare her way. However, Izumi only giggled more at their reaction. 

Hitoshi and Shouto landed on a pile of pillows while she drifted gently onto the ground and let go of the balloon, allowing it to float upwards into the sky. The split-haired teen and the purplette pushed themselves off of the pillows and laid down in order to catch a break. Although, that moment was quickly interrupted when the freckled greenette pulled them up and positioned them so that were sitting crisscrossed. Then, she took a deep breath and grinned from ear to ear, looking extremely proud of herself for what she was about to do.

“Welcome to Elsewhere, the land where fantasies and dreams become reality! _(Oh my tea time! I finally got say it!)_ My name is Midoriya Izumi, but you can call me Izumi! Or Izu! Or Umi! Or any nickname as long as you don’t call me ‘Midoriya’, ‘Zumi’, or ‘The Queen of Life’! Anyway, I’m so excited to show you around! I mean, there are never any guests—the last one was Zomecchan, but he’s been gone for a long time—over, so I might be a bit hyper. However, I do hope you two can catch up! After all, Cheshire said that you guys can handle anything since you’re heroes!”

Todoroki, for some strange reason, raised his hand as if he was still in class, but it didn’t seem Izumi was phased by it since she actually went along and pointed at him, indicating that he could talk.

“Why are you so trusting of us? We just met.” He and Shinsou was given a bright smile and a plate of cookies along with a cup of tea. Although, she didn’t answer his question right away due to the fact that she was tapping random rocks around them and giving them life, but the two of them weren’t too annoyed by it. Instead, they watched in wonder as they saw rocks gravitate to each other to form small earth people and immediately were interested in the tea, climbing onto the greenette’s lap to get a sip.

“It’s because you guys are good people, regardless of whether or not you’re in a hero school.” Hitoshi eyed Izumi. Had Bakugou been right about her? 

“And how do you know that? It’s not like you’re all-knowing.”

Despite the childlike behavior she exhibited towards them earlier, a more mature and vague response was given. “There’s no such thing ‘bad people’, only ‘people with unfortunate circumstances’.” There was a serious silence among the three of them until she exclaimed, “Well, you guys won’t be able to see the rest of Elsewhere from the inside of my room! C’mon! 

Shouto attempted to say something, but he was immediately cut off when he and Shinsou were tugged out of the room and into a hallway of a palace. 

Everything looked so...whimsical, foreign, magical, and childish all in all.

Light from the vanilla-and-marshmallow-smelling candles reflected off of the opal walls in a rainbow of colors. The ceiling had pillows falling from it, cushioning the ground; although they did little to stop the flowers beneath it from growing over them. Replacing the pillows were rapidly materializing stardust and bubbles. Scrolls that were supposed to display something had been obscured by balloons. Additionally, youthful desserts and snacks were popping up in a puff of clouds around the three of them. 

***End music***

Although, once the two students’ eyes met those of a white rabbit’s, a hateful glare tore them out of Elsewhere and brought them back to their rooms where they woke up in a cold sweat.

And neither of them could justify what they saw as a dream because there was a piece of paper with a message written on it.

_“If we ever see you near Izumi, we won’t hesitate to kill your family. Know your place and keep your mouth shut; the walls have eyes and ears. Also, do make sure to prepare some snacks and tea. We’ll be visiting you all soon.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have no idea how proud I am of myself right now (*´∀`)♪. This is the second time I’ve had a posting streak (⌒▽⌒)! I wonder if I’ll be able to post two chapters per day! Although, I wouldn’t count on it. 
> 
> But enough about me! What did you all think about the blatant BakuDeku fanservice? Was it good? What do you think about the “Izumi” in his maybe or maybe not dream? As for the blatant ShinDeku and TodoDeku fanservice, their turn will come in due time since those two created a stable connection between Elsewhere, not Nowhere, and the Overworld.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please comment! I always love reading them!


	10. Change of Plans [Pt. 1]

Izumi had a smile on her face as she dragged Shoucchan and Hitocchan with her. All of her memories, excluding the ones that had Kacchan in them, were exclusively Elsewhere-related. Everything and everyone she’s ever been familiar with were from Elsewhere, and in all honesty, that made her feel stifled in the fantasy land. While the greenette absolutely _loved_ her fantasy world, it was getting boring. 

Whatever she wanted, she got without any complaints, but there would always be a hole in her chest, a feeling of emptiness. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was feeling that way because there was no challenges for her. She didn’t have to earn it, she just got it, and that was something she disliked. Although, when she brought the issue up to Walter, he refused to make her earn what she wanted, so she eventually gave up on trying. This, however, led her to become obsessed with the Overworld. 

From what Cheshire had told her, there were these people called ‘heroes’ ~~she knows this already, she lived there~~ who would go around the Overworld protecting people from others who did bad things; they were called ‘villains’. Heroes worked hard and pushed their limits all the time to save people they haven’t even met before, and Izumi admired them for what they did. On the other hand, villains were composed of megalomaniacs and outcasts, the majority of them being the latter. The cat hybrid told her that, due to unfortunate circumstances, people were forced to be villains. After hearing that, Izumi didn’t know what to think of the Overworld. Unlike Elsewhere, it was so complicated yet beautifully intricate in both the best and worst of ways. 

Despite the complexity of the other world, Izumi still loved it and wished every night to be able to meet one person from there, so seeing two Overworldians who were also U.A students gave her emotions of exhilaration she’d never experienced in her life ~~in Elsewhere at least~~.

Although, that emotion quickly faded away as they vanished before she could bring them to the balcony for them to view the magnificence of Elsewhere. Having such a lovely feeling that disappeared as fast as it appeared was unacceptable to the greenette, and she was desperate to find a way to connect to the Overworld once more.

Fortunately, with enough concentration, she found a weak link that was rapidly dwindling and forced her way through the link, which was extremely painful. 

Her screams of agony echoed throughout the palace and ~~White Rabbit~~ Walter ran towards her. 

“Izumi!”

However, she ignored his concern and continued pushing through the link. 

“Izumi, you must stop what you are doing!”

It felt as if she was being torn apart and rearranged before being smashed together. In addition, she could feel foreign materials being injected into her that made her body burn as it rejected the materials, but the materials prevailed as it coated themselves around her form to create a physical human body, not one composed out of spirit energy. 

Then, a bright light washed over her, and she opened her eyes to see a humungous H-shaped building. 

She made it; she was now in the Overworld and in front of U.A itself no less.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Yamada Hizashi had seen, heard, and experienced many weird things throughout his career as a Pro Hero but, when he found out that his son was basically going to travel into an alternate world to save a girl who was killed by an anthropomorphic rabbit, that really took the cake.

However, he was now debating on whether or not that was the weirdest thing he’s ever heard of since, right in U.A’s walls, was that exact same dead girl who was giving small nearby rocks life. Then he suddenly felt so lucky that he came to the school early.

“Hey little listener,” he started after he approached her, “what are you doing here?”

Sparkly, emerald green eyes greeted him as the greenette jumped up and gave the hero a hug.

“You’re Present Mic! Oh my tea time, Cheshire has told me about how much you’re his favorite Overworldian since you feed him really good food!” 

Confusion filled Hizashi’s mind. He didn’t remember feeding anyone food, but he and Shouta do see a stray come by their house frequently for food. Despite the fact that Shouta calls it a “Freeloading Brat”, the blonde knew that he was fond of the stray. 

“Izumi? What’re you doing in the Overworld?”

Right beside Yamada was that exact same stray who was apparently _talking._ Although, the greenette wasn’t concerned about the fact that the cat was actually talking but was more excited at the appearance of the cat.

“Cheshire,” she exclaimed, picking up the cat and giving him a hug. “I did it! I was able to make it over! And you’re in your cat form too!” Izumi then peppered kisses all over the cat’s face. “Now I can meet these ‘heroes’ you were talking about!” 

The cat, Cheshire, chuckled and jumped out of her grip, turning into a cat-human hybrid quickly after. “This human is a hero. You just called him by his hero name, ‘Present Mic’. His real name is Yamada Hizashi.”

The poor hero didn’t even any time to react as Izumi dragged him into the school.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Shinsou walked into class and sat in his seat, ready for class to begin. While he was waiting, Todoroki stopped by his desk to talk about the “dream” they had last night. After that, the split-haired boy went to his own desk and sat down, thinking about something.

A few minutes passed, and the rest of his classmates went to their seats, knowing that their teacher would come in at any moment. However, that moment never came as more minutes had passed and Da-Mr. Aizawa didn’t show up. Then, out of nowhere, Hitoshi could hear his dad yelling in the hallway. 

“Hey! Get back here, Problem Child! Freeloading Brat!”

“The egg roll man is catching up to us, Cheshire!”

“Don’t worry! There door’s right,” the door to the classroom flung open to reveal a cat-human hybrid and a green-haired girl, “here!”

Not long after, the two strangers entered the classroom and got up in front of the classroom. Shinsou internally cursed when he noticed that the green-haired person was no other than Midoriya Izumi, and it seemed she recognized him too based on the starry look in her eyes. Meanwhile, Katsuki gaped at the scene in front of him, and Todoroki’s eyes widened.

“Kacchan! Shoucchan! Hitocchan! Hi!” Afterwards, she gazed at the other students and gave them the most brightest and excited smile they’ve ever seen. “Hi to you all too! Thank you all for being Kacchan’s friends!”

Kaminari raised his hand and asked, “Uh, nice to meet you too, but I have two questions. Who are you? And who’s ‘Kacchan’?”

Bakugou slammed his hand into the desk and stood up. “That’s not of your goddamn business, Pikachu. Zumi, how are you here?” Noticing the blonde’s upset mood, the smile on the greenette’s face fell into a small frown. “I’m sorry for not visiting you earlier, Kacchan.” Unbeknownst to her, Cheshire shot a glare at the childhood friend and silently mouthed, “Make her upset one more time, Explodo-boy, and I will fill you with so many holes, rats’ll think you’re cheese.” 

“I really couldn’t find my way over here until Shoucchan and Hitocchan connected Elsewhere with the Overworld,” she explained, “I don’t know how, but I think they were dreaming.” At the mention of Elsewhere, the entire class started asking questions, but it was at this time did Aizawa finally entered the classroom with a look that said ‘God, I’m so done with this shit’. 

“You two are in so much trouble, Problem Child and Freeloading Brat. Introduce yourselves to the class, and we’ll talk about your punishments later.”

Despite the fact that Izumi was in trouble, another genuine and bright smile formed on her face. 

“I forgot about that! Thank you, Mr. Egg Roll! Anyway, my name’s Midoriya Izumi, and I’m from Elsewhere! My favorite thing in the world is Kacchan!” Once the girls in the class realized who ‘Kacchan’ was, they ‘awwed’. “And I like giving life to objects with my quirk!” Little people made out of rock and plants popped out of Izumi’s hair to prove her statement. “It is called ‘Izanagi’, and it allows me to bring things to life as well as ‘edit’ them! However, I get really drained of energy and get more emotionally sensitive when I overuse it. A fun fact about me is that I have a really nice rabbit as a friend!”

Immediately everyone went quiet when Izumi brought up White Rabbit. Had she forgotten that White Rabbit betrayed her trust and killed her?

Cheshire cleared his throat. “My name is Cheshire, but you guys can call me Nico! I like anything Izumi likes! I don’t have a quirk, _yet._ ”

After that, the two new students sat down in their seats, and class began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I reached 10 chapters _and_ I posted two chapters (albeit for two different stories but still.)! Today is clearly a good day ( ´ ▽ ` ). 
> 
> What did you guys think of Izumi traveling to the Overworld? Is it a good idea or a terrible one? How do you think the other students will react when they found out that they planned everything for nothing? Well, I can’t answer those questions just yet, but I can tell you that I’m going to use this change to further the main ship as well as many others!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter!


	11. Change of Plans [Pt. 2]; Their Hobbies

“Then Hizacchan brought us to Mr. Nezu, and I told him everything! After that, he said Cheshire and I could join the Hero Course since we already proved our worth somehow! Of course, I’d be a total idiot if I didn’t, so I accepted, which is why I’m a part of Class 1-A now! As for Cheshire, he joined the class because he didn’t want me to feel lonely on my first day!”

Once lunch started, the students of 1-A, as well as the other classes who were involved in the plan to invade Elsewhere, dragged the two Elsewhereans to a table and grouped around them in order to question them about their homeland. And while Izumi was more than enthusiastic to answer all of them along with inviting them to come visit, Cheshire remained quiet about his knowledge of the other world, allowing the greenette to ramble. However, as much as Bakugou—and Todoroki and Shinsou, but they would never admit it—wanted to talk to her, they were getting increasingly upset at the lack of legitimate evidence they were receiving, and the cat hybrid, who had the evidence they wanted, was refusing to speak.

“So,” Kaminari asked, “what do you guys do for fun over there?”

Before Izumi could open her mouth, Cheshire interrupted her, saying, “I’ll talk this question, Izumi. You need to take a break from talking; here’s some water.” Afterwards, he handed Midoriya a bottle of water, and she drank it after she thanked him. 

“We, the Council, do different things in our spare time, but those who aren’t a part of the Council don’t have free time since they’re working for different members of the Council. Although, the exception to that is my servants. Shinoshi, Hatsumei, and Setsage are usually just chilling in my territory because I don’t need their help for my hobby, traveling the Overworld. If I had to say, I’m the only Council member in Elsewhere where my servants absolutely love me!”

The implication of what Cheshire was trying to say didn't go over anyone’s head; he was the only one in Elsewhere who didn’t abuse his servants. Of course, Izumi didn’t understand the hidden message he was trying to convey, so she just gave him a big smile and said, “I’m pretty sure everyone else’s servants love them too, Cheshire!” In response, the hybrid chuckled and nodded his head in false agreement.

“Anyways,” he continued, “when it comes to White Rabbit, his hobby is...‘playing around with people’ using different ‘toys’. In comparison to Mad Hatter, their hobbies are pretty similar, but White Rabbit’s hobby makes people tired and puts them to sleep. As a result, his servants typically clean up his mess and bring the sleeping people to a place for them to rest.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

White Rabbit smiled softly as he cried tears of joy while he rubbed his now-human cheek against the large intestine of his victim. Somehow, the woman was able to survive her organ getting ripped out, but the Elsewherean didn’t mind since he would be able to play with her more. With an excited expression on his face, he nibbled the organ and groaned at the texture in his mouth. Although, he wasn’t planning to eat the woman.

“Please stop,” she begged. “I’ll do anything, just let me go home.” Then, she started to cry as a result of the unbearable pain she was experiencing. “I just wanna go home!”

A look of pure bliss formed on the hybrid’s face as he moved in closer to the woman’s face and licked the tears from her cheeks. 

“I made you look so beautiful,” he gushed. “Prior to this moment, you were hideous with your _stupid_ grin and _repulsing_ exuberance. After all, no one wears those expressions better than my precious Izumi with her adorable freckles and sincere smile. However, everyone can appear gorgeous with fear and despair on their face. Just look at your pathetic tears! They make you look so...so... _hopeless_.”

With a lick of his lips, White Rabbit shoved a knife into the woman’s stomach, and she died screaming in agony, much to the hybrid’s disappointment.

“Iidenya,” he ordered with an upset look on his face, “ship this corpse to that meat factory in Nowhere, and tell them that they might have to season it since she didn’t die with enough terror instilled into her.”

At his command, a perfect replica of Iida entered the room, dragging the carcass of the woman with him to be delivered to Nowhere.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“There’s so many members in the Council though,” Cheshire complained, “so I’m only going to tell you guys the particularly _‘interesting’_ ones now. However, don’t think that White Rabbit isn’t ‘interesting’. He’s not the leader of the Council for nothing.”

Once again, everyone but Izumi knew what was the Elsewherean was talking about. Although, Bakugou was beginning to get annoyed at the slow pace the hybrid was taking. “If you’re going to fucking tell us, then tell us already!” Small explosions crackled in his hands, but when Izumi gave him an upset look, the blonde grumbled and deactivated his quirk.

“Alright. Alright. Next we got the twins, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Their hobby is to experiment with things, see what goes together and what doesn’t. Additionally, they like to put things together. Their servants bring them the tools they need. Nowadays, they get requests from their new ‘friends’, and let’s just say that these new friends don’t like your teachers’ career as heroes or any hero for that matter.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Lights that were too bright glared at the man lying down on the cold, metal operating table. Above him were two teenagers that looked exactly the same. When he glanced down at himself, he noticed that the only thing covering his naked body was a thin, bloodied teal blanket.

“Dee, our subject woke up!”

“Don’t worry, Dum. He’s restrained to the table, so he won’t be able to escape. Besides, it’s better when they scream.”

“Of course, Dee! You’re really smart!”

“Yes, yes. Now, Nirenoda, what did TV Toddler want this time around?”

“Mr. Shigaraki requested a creation similar to a Nomu,” a quiet voice answered. “Although, he has to look like a human.”

The man panicked at the situation and tried to scream for help, but his mouth was stuffed with a dirty sock that was taped to his face to prevent him from talking coherently. Internally, he had an idea of what was going on—these two teenagers were going to kill him or something of the like, but he tried to deny it, hoping that he was wrong. However, as the two kept talking, it was getting clear that his first thought was correct.

“A human-looking Nomu? That’s easy! We should add some features of our own to make it harder, Dee!” His twin nodded in agreement.

“Definitely. How about we can make it so that any person who comes in contact with his bodily fluids will die? He’ll make a great assassin.” The other boy—who the man assumed was ‘Dum’—bobbed his head in eagerness.

“Yeah! And, to make it easier for others to come into contact with those fluids, let’s make him look handsome! It’ll be like a kiss of death!”

“Good idea.”

Dee and Dum then stared at the man with a grins that contained a twisted form of excitement. Slowly, a scalpel and a syringe filled with a fluid came into his line of sight, and the only thing he could do was shout into the gag, tears falling down the side of his face all the while.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

After Cheshire’s censored explanation of the twins’ hobby, the entire student body of U.A shuddered at the thought of Tweedledee and Tweedledum mangling a poor civilian for fun. 

“As for Caterpillar,” the Elsewherean started, “he enjoys making things that make people extremely happy to the point where they can’t enough of them. Heck, he has a few stores here in the Overworld where those things are peddled like crazy. His servants are responsible for selling them and being test dummies themselves.” 

Izumi had a bright smile on her face as she said, “He also helps me dispose of my Cacoethes since it’s very sticky so it’ll get stuck in all of the furniture!” 

Everyone turned around to look at the greenette. Todoroki’s eyebrows rose at her statement. “Your Cacoethes? What is that?” The question caused her to clutch her chest in phantom pain, and her smile fell into a frown.

“It’s something that forms from me when I feel the emptiness,” she responded glumly. “In my energy form, which is what you and Hitocchan saw when you first summoned me, there’ll be a hole in the shape of a heart, and golden goo will spill out of it as well as small little of toys of...someone I feel like I should remember. Because of the hole, something red comes out of my mouth and mixes with the goo. According to Carlos, or Caterpillar in your case, the mixture is called Cacoethes, and it is very dangerous for anyone to eat. However, he also said that many people want my Cacoethes.” Her frown turned into a smile. “I’m so glad he is helping me with my Cacoethes!”

Even though he didn’t know why, Hitoshi suddenly hugged Izumi, causing tears to well up in her eyes. Meanwhile, Katsuki glared at the purplette, and Shouto forced his eyes to stare somewhere else.

“Why am I crying?” She muttered to herself, “There’s nothing I should be crying about.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Admiring the orange slime in the jar, Caterpillar grinned as he opened the container and tasted the mixture. Immediately, emotions of extreme euphoria rushed through his caterpillar-human body. 

The hybrid rode his high for a few minutes before coming down from it and delicately handing the jar to Kinori, smoking his hookah right after.

“Bring the Cacoethes to Ponotori and make sure to not let a drop of it spill, or else you’ll be the next test subject for the Sominior.”

Kinori nodded in understanding and left Caterpillar’s territory to travel to the Overworld.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Cheshire got up and gently nudged Shinsou off of Izumi. Not wanting to make the Elsewherean mad, he did as he was tacitly told and, reluctantly, got off of Izumi. Afterwards, the hybrid picked the greenette up and left the cafeteria while she was sobbing into his shoulder for a reason unbeknownst to her. In order to comfort her, he patted her back soothingly and told her to let it all out. Then, she mumbled something to the hybrid, and he pulled out a mouse cat toy. 

With a touch to the toy’s nose, she muttered something to it, which caused it to grow in size and move. The hybrid jumped onto the mouse, Izumi in hand, before the mouse broke through the wall and sped off into the distance, leaving the others alone to comprehend everything they’d just learned. 

Although, Katsuki took the opportunity to gesture Shouto and Hitoshi to follow him. Curious as to what the blonde wanted to say, the two of them did as they were told and followed Bakugou into another room. Once the three of them were away from the crowd, the blonde locked the door and gave Shinsou and Todoroki a glare. 

“Who do you fuckers think you are?” 

The sudden hostility stunned the split-haired boy while the purplette, who was already used to hostile treatment, returned an indifferent stare. “What are you talking about this time, Bakugou?”

Said boy growled and yanked Shinsou by his collar. “I’m talking about how you two are trying to get Zumi to like you, Bags for Eyes! She’s not someone you can play around with and leave once you get bored of her!”

Snapping out of his shock, Todoroki responded coolly to Bakugou’s accusation.

“I don’t know about Shinsou, but I know that I am interested in her. However, I would never play around with her feelings.”

Now with Shouto as his target, the blonde whipped around to face him and sneered. “And why should I let Zumi date a half-assing bastard like you?”

“If I didn’t know any better,” the purplette interrupted, “I’d think you like Izumi yourself.”

Shinsou’s use of the greenette’s first name threw Bakugou in a fit of rage as he roared, “What the fuck did you—”

**“Tell us why you brought us here.”**

His rage-filled expression melted into one of detachment as he answered. “I wanted to tell you assholes to back away from Zumi.”

**“And were you going to tell us this because you like her yourself?”**

“No. It’s ‘cause I don’t want you guys to hurt her.”

**“So you don’t like Izumi.”**

“I do, but Zumi only sees me as a friend. So I just make sure she isn’t hurt.”

Once he was satisfied, Shinsou released Bakugou from his control. Immediately after, the blonde ran out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m baaaaaack from my short break! I had to catch up on some rest since I was being stupid. Speaking of which, _don’t_ do sleep-related or any experiments on yourself. It messes with your brain. 
> 
> Anyways, how did you guys like the chapter? Did you all like the slight, microscopic amount of ShinDeku and TodoDeku? If not, don’t worry, there’ll be more in future chapters!


	12. A Reveal and Friendly Times

Cheshire and Izumi got off of the living cat toy while enjoying the feeling of sand running through their feet. Already getting all of the tears out of her system, Izumi only had puffy red eyes from all of the crying. Although, since she didn’t want to show Cheshire that she was crying, she stared at the ground.

Wanting to comfort her, Cheshire petted her head and pointed at the sea in front of them. “Look,” he began. “This is one of the sights I wanted to show you.” Curious as to what he wanted to show her, Midoriya looked up from the floor and stared in the direction of the Elsewherean’s finger, gasping as she was met with the sight.

There, under the shining sun, was a huge body of water that appeared like it was a liquid mixture of a light blue tourmaline and teal apatite with its clearness and the rays of the sun reflecting off of it like it was a gem. Its light waves gently shuffled towards the shore, leaving pretty pastel seashells there as a result. Above the sea were multiple fluffy clouds that were shaped like various food from Izumi’s perspective. These clouds appeared fluffier, had a baby blue tint, and appeared to have depth and shadows while Elsewhere’s clouds were slightly pointier yet rounder, mostly a smoky grey, and looked flat and generic like a child’s drawing of a cloud. The sea even had a scent, something Elsewhere’s seas never had. Of course, the smell was very watery, but it was also fresh. There was even the gentle crashing of waves near the large rocks to the right and the calls of seagulls that entranced the greenette even more.

“I found this place on my first trip here,” the cat hybrid divulged. “I was driven out a man’s house by his crazy wife who hated cats. With nowhere to go, I accidentally stumbled here. You see, a while ago, this place was just a trash dump for those who were too lazy to find a trashcan, but, since I was going to stay here, I decided to clean up this area. It took a few days, but I managed to do it.”

He took in the lovely sight of the sea and continued, “Looking back on it, the work was definitely worth it. If I hadn’t cleared up this beach, then no one would, and I wouldn’t be able to show you this.”

After that, he turned to Izumi and a sad smile formed on his face when he saw her stare at the sea in wonder. He then sighed, and Izumi was taken out of her trance. She tore her eyes from the sea and looked at Cheshire. “What’s wrong, Cheshire?” She asked.

He sighed and ran his fingers through the sand. “You know, Izumi, there’s gonna be a time where you’ll despise Elsewhere with all of your heart and not want to use your new power,” the hybrid then placed his hand on Midoriya’s chest, “but—and please remember—your power is not born from Elsewhere. You _made_ this power with your own heart and soul.”

Before she could ask Cheshire what he was talking about, rays of light burst from the greenette’s chest and swirled around the two Elsewhereans before going off to dance around their surroundings. Some of the rays ran in the wind, causing colorful rain to shower the world; some of the rays swam in the water, causing the sea to spiral upwards; and so on and so forth. As all of this was happening, he cried as his smile widened.

“Your second quirk is what is left of the Elsewhere of long ago, the perfect Elsewhere. The first Queen made you her successor when she first saw you, and now you able to harness the power she used to create her dream world. Now that you have her quirk paired with your own quirk, you are truly a Goddess.”

Izumi opened her mouth to, once again, ask Cheshire questions of her own, but he interrupted her by continuing.

“Go on, concentrate on what you want to create and funnel your two quirks into one.”

Not knowing what was going on but still going along with Cheshire’s words, she did as he suggested. At first, she stared at the sea in front of her and remembered that the other Elsewherean had no home to stay in. She then decided that those two thoughts would be her prompt.

In her mind, she imagined a small cottage than would float on a lily pad in the sea. She imagined Cheshire hopping on shifting pebbles that hovered a bit above the water and entering his new home with a smile on his face. Finally, she took that thought and channeled her quirk into it. The strangest thing that followed was another feeling being channeled in her along with her quirk. It felt like it belonged to her like it was her heritage, but, at the same time, it also felt like it belonged to someone she was close to.

Suddenly, something that felt like a door in her chest was thrown open and light hurled out of it and flew towards the ocean. The light trembled in place for a while before taking various shapes and falling down into the sea, causing a large wave to form. The wave dived in towards the two Elsewhereans and doused them.

After the wave crashed, it revealed a quaint cottage on a large, vibrant green lily pad that floated on the blue body of water with ease. Surrounding the cottage were hundreds of small pebbles that were hovering in the air, unable to jumped on unless one had skill. In front of the cottage, there was a sign. And, although no one other than Izumi knew what was scribed onto the sign, Cheshire could see what was written onto it.

“Cheshire’s Cottage,” it said.

Said Elsewherean had a large smile on his face at the thought of Midoriya making him his own home as her first creation, but the greenette wasn’t as happy as him since her vision was becoming more blurry while her head was pounding and felt like scrambled eggs. In addition, her entire chest was sore, and that didn’t even cover all of the other drawbacks she was experiencing.

The only thing her body wanted at the moment was to rest, and she couldn’t really disagree with it.

“‘M gonna go to sleep,” she slurred as she collapsed onto the sand below her.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

As Bakugou left the room, Shinsou and Todoroki were left in silence as they waited for something to happen next, and that something came in the form of feeling their chests being ripped open.

Trying to call for help, Hitoshi opened his mouth in order to shout, but the sudden appearance of the pain caused all of the air in his lungs to be knocked out of him. Meanwhile, Shouto’s fire and ice went out of control as they spiraled around him in some sort of defensive position. Slowly, their visions became blurry, and agonizing headaches formed in addition to aching muscles all over.

The only thing they heard before they passed out was the muffled shouts of Bakugou Katsuki telling them to remain awake until he got help. However, Shouto weakly shook his head despite the pain and mumbled, “I jus’ want some sleep.”

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

“Damn it, kid. I don’t know what goes on in the Overworld anymore, but you guys sure did fuck up Elsewhere.”

Kouichi gaped at the sight of The Gondolier entering his room—that was personally made by Cementoss—and sitting down on a very comfortable recliner, not even bothering to take off his boots although Haimawari didn’t mind all that much. He waited until the older man got comfortable and let out a sigh before he replied to his statement with a question.

“What do you mean by that?” The Gondolier let out a groan as he popped his neck.

“I mean, White Rabbit and the rest of the Council—excluding Cheshire of course—are fumbling around, trying to formulate a viable plan to get their Queen back. If they’re not doin’ that, they’re letting out their anger by participating in their hobbies.”

The mention of Midoriya made The Crawler remember the shock he initially experienced when he was suddenly told that he no longer needed to convince The Gondolier to bring an entire class of U.A students with them since their main goal was already completed when she suddenly spawned at the school. Despite being happy for the greenette for being able to escape the Council’s grasp, Haimawari couldn’t help but feel a bit upset at the sudden change of plans. 

For multiple hours without food or sleep, he had been concocting various speeches that were supposed to tug on the man’s heartstrings and guilt trip him into bringing them to Elsewhere. Then, he was suddenly told that there was no need to do that anymore and was instead asked if he could help the students of U.A guard Izumi from any of the Council’s henchmen. All of those planned speeches that he worked hard on were thrown in the trash both figuratively and literally. 

“Also, kid, I hope you realize that Cheshire and Izumi are currently at a beach a few minutes away from here.”

Kouichi whipped around to stare at The Gondolier.

“What?”

“I said, ‘Cheshire and Izumi are currently at a beach a few minutes away from here.’ You daft, kid?”

The young man wasted no time in suiting up in his vigilante outfit and rushing out of his room in order to get to the beach. However, he forgot to ask the older man which beach the two Elsewhereans were at as he got lost a few seconds after he left the campus.


	13. The Best Gift

Honky-tonk music filled Izumi’s ears as she woke up on a wooden floor with Cheshire sleeping on her in his cat form, providing her with warmth. Not wanting to wake him up, since she knew how cranky he got when being woken up in the middle of a nap no matter how hard he attempts to hide it, she remained in the same position she was in while examining the interior of the cottage.

From what she could see, there was a joined dining room and living room that was barely furnished with splintery wooden tables and chairs, a violently torn-up couch, and various old and discarded cat toys. Around the corner of one of the walls, the greenette supposed there was a bedroom and bathroom. Finally, there was a small kitchen that she couldn’t see completely due to restrained posture. Although, she could catch sight of a navy blue mini fridge that had whiskers and cat eyes painted on it in teal paint.

Despite the perfection of the minimal and—quite frankly—adorable cottage, Izumi couldn’t help but think there was something missing, so she thought had about the cat-human hybrid’s preferences. The Elsewherean was never one for small, subdued, and typical. Instead, he always sought adventure and the atypical, unique, bustling, and _huge_ , which was why—if one wanted to find him—he’d always be relaxing in a rich bleeding heart’s mansion. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy small places. Occasionally, when he was exhausted and tired, he would find small apartments to stay in.

Suddenly, the answer came to mind. The thing that was missing was accessibility to busy areas! Every time the Elsewherean stayed somewhere, it was always situated in a bustling city, but the cottage was floating on the silent and tranquil ocean of a beach she didn’t even know whether or not it was near a city. 

This fact urged her to use her newfound power once more. After all, if she could, then why didn’t she? At the same time, she also didn’t want to worry Cheshire, nor did she want to experience the pain she had just went through. Yet, her pain was a small price to pay for a comfortable life for him. But then, what would she do? Something inside of her—her instincts she assumed—was telling her that making portals to cities was something that she isn’t able to do. 

While waiting for the cat to wake up, she ruminated about her next action, muttering all the while, which caused the cat to eventually wake up.

“You could’ve woken me up,” Cheshire fretted, “since I was only there because I wanted you to be warm.“

The greenette chuckled and petted him. “Don’t worry, Cheshire! You needed the rest anyway!” Then, she picked him up and placed him beside her as she got up. “On another note, the setting of this house really doesn’t fit you,” she blurted out abruptly while glancing at the interior of the new structure.

In response, the new cottage owner shook both his paws and head frantically. “Ah, no, it’s fine! You worked really hard on making this cottage!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t create anything,” Izumi enunciated casually as she walked towards a window, opened it, and stared out at the clear ocean surrounding the cottage. “I can’t create a bustling city right off the bat, after all.” 

Suddenly, the tiny rock and plant people that the both Elsewhereans forgot about squeaked in the greenette’s hair after being ignored for so long. With burning determination, they slowly climbed down her hair and progressed towards her hands. Once they arrived at their destination, they pouted at their creator and demanded her affection, causing her to giggle. 

“Aww, I’m sorry for forgetting you guys. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for me recently.” To show her sincerity, she petted the tiny people with her index finger. In response, they purred and nuzzled into the finger, urging her to pet them more.

While doing this, an idea formed in her mind, and she hastily stood up, accidentally knocking over the rock people.

“I’ve got it!”

_“Squeak!”_

Realizing that she knocked over the people, she bent over the windowsill, worried that they had fell into the ocean. Fortunately, they had landed on the lily pad, and Midoriya wasted no time in running out of the cottage in order to ensure their safety. Tears spilled from her eyes as she picked them up and held them close to her cheek. “Oh my tea time, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to knock you all over!”

The rock people responded to the greenette with a forgiving squeak and a hug to her cheek, which only made her cry more out of guilt for potentially harming her people. Meanwhile, Cheshire watched everything go down with a deadpan expression, ears swerving around in order to catch any sounds that a human would normally miss; his amber eyes following each little movement with burning curiosity. 

“I’ve always wondered,” he chimed in with a calm voice, “what does it matter to you if a few lives are snuffed out? You can always give life to other things.”

Stopping at the question, Izumi turned to the cat, rock people in hand, and said, “That may be true, but not all lives are the same.”

“Why’s that? You can simply modify a life to be the same as the next,” Cheshire replied.

“Well,” she started, trying to think of a similar situation to help the Elsewherean understand. “It’s like a city. You can duplicate a city from its history to its culture, but it won’t carry the same meaning as the original. If anything, it will just be a shell; a copy.” She paused for a second. “Speaking of cities,” she began, “I’m planning to gift you a quirk since your house isn’t settled in a city.”

The cat immediately stood up on all four legs at this and stared at her in shock and surprise. “A quirk?! For me?! Already?! I’d thought the others were the ones who were going to be gifted a quirk!”

The Queen of Life shook her head and walked towards the cat to deposit the rock people onto the windowsill, giving them one final pet before withdrawing contact. Then, she crawled inside the cottage through the window as to not cut off the conversation prematurely. “Change of plans. Besides, this will be the final touch to your new home.” When she turned to face the cat, her face was serious, which was rare for her. “Although, you do know how the process works, right?”

Cheshire nodded, and she gave him a small grin.

“That’s good.”

From there, the two Elsewhereans, along with the rock people, walked into the bedroom to start the alteration process.

Had anyone been in a close vicinity of the house, they would’ve heard the screams of agony coming and seen a blinding bright light come from the windows of the cottage.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Todoroki woke up in Recovery Girl’s office next to Shinsou who looked to be dreaming about something pleasant. He got up carefully, making sure not to aggravate any injuries that might’ve occurred when he passed out, but he soon discovered that he wasn’t injured to the point where it would’ve caused him to faint. In fact, he hadn’t been injured at all!

He got up, making sure not to wake up the purplette, and walked out of her office only to be stopped by her syringe-themed cane that blocked the exit. When he turned to look at her, she had a serious expression on her face.

“Care to explain why you and Shinsou fainted out of the blue, child?”

Not wanting to be impolite or insincere, Shouto tried to provide an answer, but there was no plausible explanation that would satisfy the heroine. So, he just told her the truth. “I’m...not sure. One moment, I was perfectly fine. The next, I was feeling terrible. Although, I cannot speak for Shinsou,” he admitted.

The heroine was silent as she processed the new information and thought of her next move. Stern silence filled the clinic, and the dual quirk wielder was progressively getting more uncomfortable, but, out of respect and not wanting to make a ruckus that would wake the purplette up, he remained standing there, awaiting Shuuzenji’s next orders.

Minutes pass, and the silence was broken by a sigh from the old woman. “If that’s the case, then I cannot properly give you advice as to how you can prevent this,” she stated while handing him a monitor, “but I will give you this monitor. Wear it and, if any complications occur, it will notify me and I will come. Understand?”

Todoroki nodded in understanding and was about to leave the clinic to go to class until he heard the Youthful Heroine say one last thing before he left.

“But please do not get into too much trouble, child. All of the other teachers and students are in a tizzy because Midoriya broke out of school and is now lost. In addition, our guest, Haimawari, had decided to escape the school premises without notifying us. Not to mention the surprise on everyone’s faces when they found out that The Gondolier was actually Stain.”

Immediately after hearing this, Shouto ran out of the clinic to go to the cafeteria, the last place where he saw Izumi.

𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮

Chisaki Kai sneered at the disassembled corpse of a random villain in front of him as his assistant, Kurono Hari, stood watch in case any heroes came their way. With a flick of his wrist, he got rid of any stray blood that got on his gloves. When Kurono noticed that his boss had finished the job, he walked towards him and asked, “Was this the one?”

“No, he doesn’t know where Eri is,” he growled out, “and he had the _audacity_ to fucking touch me with his disease.”

At this reply, the assistant sent a glare the corpse’s way and said, “He deserves a more painful death for touching you, Overhaul.” In response, the yakuza boss just shook his head and left the alleyway. “We’re heading out. There’s no point in staying here.”

“Yes, Overhaul.”

As the two yakuza walked back to their home base, they were interrupted by sudden appearance of a cat-human hybrid and a green-haired teen. The hybrid laughed as he stared at his new surroundings but did not notice the two suspicious men in front of him.

“This quirk is really cool, Izumi! Now I can go wherever I want without worrying about those dumb Overworldian laws!”

The greenette, Izumi, gave the hybrid a wide smile as small people made out of rocks sprouted from her hair. “I’m glad you liked your new quirk, Cheshire! It took me a little bit of thought, and it seems it fits you quite well!”

Overhaul’s eyes widened at the girl’s choice of words. From what he could tell, the teen, Izumi, had somehow used her own quirk to transfer a quirk to the hybrid, Cheshire, similar to how a certain villain’s quirk worked. In the first time in, for what seemed like, forever, Chisaki was the one to initiate human contact by grabbing her arm.

“Are you related to All For One?” He asked with no tact for the first time in his whole life.

Izumi only gave him a confused tilt of her head while Cheshire stiffened at the mention of the name. Before the greenette could ask anything or hear anything else, the hybrid covered her ears and sent a glare in Kai’s way; his molten amber eyes scrutinizing every detail. Then, out of the blue, he touched the girl and she vanished into thin air.

With the teen out of the way, Cheshire bared his teeth threateningly at the yakuza boss.

“Don’t lump her in with that Overworldian scum, you bastard.” At the insult, Hari prepared himself for battle and was ready to use his quirk. Meanwhile, Kai composed himself and examined Cheshire.

“I don’t recall having business with an animal,” he replied coolly. The hybrid hissed at him, and the yakuza boss could tell that he was holding himself back from attacking him due to the shaking of his fists. He then took a deep breath and _touched_ the mysophobic. Based on the cat’s reaction, Chisaki knew that he knew he had mysophobia but blatantly disregarded it.

“Look here,” he whispered in his ear, “if I _ever_ see you initiate contact with her, I won’t hesitate in torturing all who are dear to you as you helplessly watch before slowly dissecting you and using your organs as party decorations.”

Once the hybrid had said all that he needed to say, he backed away from Kai and gave him a shit-eating grin. “Just think about it,” were his last words after he got at a safe distance. Right after that, he disappeared as well. Kurono then approached him, worried about his mental condition at the moment. “Boss! Are you okay?! How _dare_ he touch you!”

Kai raised his hand to silence his underling. “It’s fine. We were able to gain information that has immense potential. Although, I _do_ have a new interest in this Izumi girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Izumi has met Chisaki! And Cheshire has a quirk now! Although, this raises several questions. How did Cheshire know who Kai was? What is the limits of Cheshire’s quirk? What kind of interest does the mysophobic child have in Izumi (*^▽^*) ~~(And just how yandere will Kai become for his precious, soon-to-be wife?)~~?? 
> 
> But the most important question of all is: How will Izumi meet Shigaraki? Surely, it will be less chaotic and with more supervision by ~~trigger-happy children~~ rational adults!
> 
> Ah, there’s just so many questions! On another note, I think this will help you all so that there’s no mix up as to who’s who!
> 
> Izumi’s Name Guide So Far:
> 
> Caterpillar: Carlos  
> White Queen: Callia  
> White Rabbit: Walter  
> Red King: Ren  
> Mad Hatter: Henry  
> Tweedledee: Evan  
> Tweedledum: Devon  
> Dormouse: Derrick  
> Cheshire: Cheshire
> 
> Just so you’d all know, there is a reason as to why most of them have English-based names (⌒▽⌒)! And, no, it’s not because I got lazy with the naming since creating Japanese names are hard as trying to not post a new story every other day. Plus, there are still two more Elsewhereans that have yet to be introduced! Mainly, the King of Hearts and March Hare! Don’t worry, they’ll come up soon! 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!


End file.
